The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev Dr Samuel Kobia has urged South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to "take urgent measures to strengthen inter-Korean relationships without any pre-conditions".

Five aid agencies today announced that they have signed an agreement with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to deliver US government food assistance to North Koreans suffering from severe food shortages.

While the food crisis in North Korea continues largely unnoticed in the wider world, due to the country's isolation, a North American Anabaptist peace church is taking quiet steps to provide agricultural assistance.

A delegation from the Church of the Brethren has made a historic visit to North Korea, to make direct contact with four farm enterprises that have received support from the church - an act yet rarely extended to people from the United States.

Constructive engagement to deal with threats like nuclear proliferation is better than aggression ‚Ä' that is the message of the head of a global association of Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and indigenous churches concerning developments involving North Korea.

The scientists who mind the Doomsday Clock yesterday moved it two minutes closer to midnight, which symbolizes the annihilation of civilization, adding the perils of global warming for the first time to acute nuclear threats.

North Korea's decision to break the nuclear test moratorium and attempt to explode a nuclear device was a predictable consequence of the failure of the Bush administration's diplomacy toward the Korean peninsula, Christians in the US have said.