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S Korea slams hostage killing
26/07/2007 07:27 - (SA)
Seoul - South Korea on Thursday bitterly denounced the killing of one of its hostages by Afghanistan's Taliban and said it was sending a senior presidential envoy to try to free the 22 remaining captives.
"The South Korean government bitterly deplores the killing of a South Korean national by kidnappers in Afghanistan. The kidnappers blamed for the killing will never avoid all responsibility for that inhumane act," said the statement from the office of President Roh Moo-Hyun.
"Murder of an innocent civilian can never be justified," it added.
The foreign ministry identified the victim as Bae Hyung-Kyu, pastor of the Saem-Mul Presbyterian church and leader of the group of young aid workers who were seized last Thursday.
Bae, 42, co-founded the church in 1998 and has a young daughter, the Korea Times said. He had done volunteer work in Bangladesh in April and planned to visit Africa to help the poor after the Afghanistan mission.
"In consideration of such a grave situation, the government decided to dispatch a special envoy to Afghanistan for closer consultations with the Afghan government," the presidential statement said.
Hostages were to provide medical services
The South Koreans, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, were taken hostage while en route from Kandahar to Kabul by bus. They were to provide free medical services in the war-torn nation.
Spokespeople for the Taliban have demanded the release of their own captives in exchange for the Koreans. They set a deadline of 20:30 GMT on Wednesday for Afghan authorities to accede to their demands, or see more Koreans killed.
Hope turned to grief late on Wednesday for more than 1 000 people who gathered at the Saem-Mul church in Bundang just south of Seoul. A report that eight hostages had been freed was later denied by Afghan officials.
Then the Taliban's announcement of Bae's killing was confirmed.
"No! No!" shouted some. Many others wept.
Bae is the third Korean victim of Islamic militants in as many years.
A translator for a Korean military supply provider for the US Army was beheaded in Iraq in 2004 by insurgents who demanded the withdrawal of South Korean troops.
In February this year a South Korean soldier on duty at the US Bagram air base in Afghanistan was killed in a bomb attack staged while US Vice-President Dick Cheney was visiting.
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