North Korea: escalating tensions with neighbours

Escalating tensions between North Korea and its neighbours have sparked fears of even greater repression inside the 'hermit kingdom'.

Pyongyang's relations with China and South Korea have nosedived in recent months. North Korea has now closed its border with China at Dandong and is enforcing stricter border controls with the South.

Hundreds of South Koreans have been expelled from the South Korean Kaesong industrial complex inside North Korea. The joint complex was considered symbolic of the South's former 'sunshine' policy of engagement with the North. Indeed, the 154-mile border between the two countries reopened last year.

But this 'sunshine' policy is being reviewed by South Korean premier Lee Myung Bak who took office in February. Seoul is now linking aid to North Korea's nuclear disarmament. South Korean activists' recent barrage of helium balloons spreading black propaganda leaflets about the Pyongyang regime have further angered President Kim Jong-il.

China's relations with North Korea have been deteriorating for some time: China built a high fence along the border in 2006, following Pyongyang's nuclear experiments.

Commentators for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission believe these developments do not bode well for North Korea's religious rights record. 'Religious liberty is not coming to North Korea any time soon,' it says.

(Sources: AsiaNews, BBC, The Telegraph, WEA Religious Liberty Commission)

Pray that Pyongyang's current policy of isolating itself will be reversed.

Pray for North Korean Christians – they can be jailed simply for owning a Bible.