Talks Resume After Taliban Kill Hostage

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 26 — The remaining 22 South Korean hostages being held by the Taliban were said to still be alive this morning, after a deadline set by their captors passed last night.

A senior South Korean official — Baek Jong-Chum, the chief national security adviser to President Roh Moo-Hyun — is on his way to Kabul to coordinate efforts with the Afghan government, news services reported.

We resumed the negotiations this morning and there are a lot of efforts going on, but so far we have not reached any final conclusion, Waheedullah Mujadeddi, an Afghan official involved in the talks, said today. The Taliban says they are alive, and thats why we resumed the negotiations.

Shirin Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province south of Kabul, where the hostages are being held, confirmed that talks were continuing. The Taliban originally kidnapped 23 South Koreans; one was shot dead on Wednesday after the Taliban complained that the Afghan government had not responded positively to its demands. The victims body was taken to a United States military base in Ghazni Province, Mr. Mujadeddi said on Wednesday..

He said he expected eight hostages to be released Wednesday evening, but it did not happen. He confirmed that one had been killed.

I can confirm one of the hostages was very sick and there was no doctor or medicine, and the Taliban shot him, Mr. Mujadeddi said. He said he had learned the news directly from the group holding the hostages.

The South Koreans are members of a Protestant church group who were on a 10-day relief mission; most are women in their 20s and 30s, and some are nurses and teachers. They were abducted last Thursday while traveling on a public bus on the main highway from the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the kidnappers, said that a hostage was killed because the government had not agreed to an initial release of eight Taliban prisoners in exchange for eight Koreans. The militant groups full demands include the release of more prisoners and the withdrawal of the 200 South Korean troops now serving with the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan.

They do not pay attention and did not give a positive response, Mr. Ahmadi said of the government in Kabul, so thats why we killed one Korean hostage. The killing was done in midafternoon, he said, in a desert area in the district of Qarabagh near the main highway.

The Associated Press, citing KBS, the South Korean public broadcasting network, reported from Kabul that the slain hostage was a 42-year-old pastor, Bae Hyung-kyu.

His death at the hands of kidnappers follows that of a German engineer in Wardak province, near Kabul. Another German and four Afghans are still being held by those kidnappers.

The Taliban and other insurgents have often sought to abduct or kill foreign civilians to deter reconstruction and aid projects in Afghanistan and undermine the government. As a result, few foreigners travel on the highway from Kabul to Kandahar.

Under a new South Korean law that took effect Tuesday, a citizen of the country who travels to Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia without the governments permission can be jailed and fined, news agencies reported.

Carlotta Gall reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Jon Elsen from New York. Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul.

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