Evangelical churches in Korea are receiving criticism for sending missionaries to Afghanistan, following the recent kidnapping of 23 church volunteers.

|PIC1|In one of the world's most internet-friendly countries, 'cybercitizens' have been building up anti-Christian sentiment by posting up insults to victims and their families on blogs and community forums.

Other more extreme and distasteful blogs have been used by some internet users to call for negotiators not to try and seek the hostages' release, while others have even called for the Korean Christians to be killed.

Korean publication 'Chosun' has reported that the Korean Government and the hostages' families have appealed to the public not to promote anything that might aggravate the situation. Despite their appeals, however, a number of internet users have published on web sites that the Koreans went to Afghanistan for missionary work, and not for volunteering, as has been stated.

Some have even tried to enflame the situation by saying the Korean missionaries carried out evangelism inside the Middle Eastern country's mosques.

One popular website, 'DC Inside', was used by some cybercitizens to boast they had emailed the Taliban calling for them to kill the hostages. The website has now attempted to filter out and remove these postings.

Chosun has also reported that the official websites of Saemmul Church in Bundang, the home church of the hostages, and Korea Foundation for World Aid have had to close after being inundated with attacks and insults for sending the Koreans to Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said Wednesday that patience was running out in talks over negotiating the release of the 23 South Korean hostages. He re-emphasised the Taliban's demands that rebel prisoners must be freed by 0930 GMT on Wednesday to buy the freedom of the Korean hostages.

He said: "We had assurance from the Koreans that Kabul will release Taliban prisoners in batches and we will reciprocate," Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"We gave them eight Taliban names and they should have been freed by 7 pm (1430 GMT) yesterday, but nothing happened ...

"The Koreans should put pressure on Kabul on this for there is the risk that at any moment, any time something can happen to the hostages. If by two o'clock today (0930 GMT), the Taliban are not freed, then some of them will probably be killed. Our patience is running out."