The election of a new General Secretary and the choice of Korea for its 10th assembly were key moments for the World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting ending this week.

A South Korean grouping of churches is urging its member churches and organizations to join a campaign to give North Korean children milk and bread "without any precondition".

The secretive hard-line communist regime in North Korea has reacted angrily to global condemnation of its recent nuclear weapons test, declaring that its ‘truce’ with South Korea may be over and that it will not back down.

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".

As two hostages are released today, the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Rev Dr Ishmael Noko, calls on the international community to South Korea in its efforts to secure the safe release of the remaining hostages still held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants in Afghanistan say they have freed two women from among the 21 South Korean hostages they are currently holding, claims a news report on the BBC. Two others have already been killed.