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WORLD / Asia-Pacific
S. Korean envoys to meet with Taliban
(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-02 21:45
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - South Korean and Afghan officials searched for a
meeting place Thursday after agreeing to hold face-to-face talks with the
Taliban to seek the release of the remaining 21 South Korean captives, a
chief negotiator said.
Father Shim Jin-pyo, right, and relative Kim Sun-duk of Shim Sung-min,
one of the two South Koreans hostages killed in Afghanistan, cry at a
hospital in Sungnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007.
South Korean lawmakers embarked on a diplomatic mission for the United
States on Thursday to urge Washington to help negotiate the release of 21
hostages still held by the Taliban. [AP]
A delegation of eight South Korean lawmakers, meanwhile, departed for
Washington on Thursday to urge the United States to help negotiate the
release of the hostages. Earlier South Korean diplomatic efforts have
failed to bend Afghanistan's refusal to respond to Taliban demands for
the release of militant prisoners.
The Taliban captors have agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador but
have not found a suitable place, said Waheedullah Mujadidi, head of a
delegation negotiating with the Taliban.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the South
Koreans had requested direct talks with the militants. But he said the
militants would be willing to hold such a meeting in Taliban-controlled
territory.
The Taliban "want to negotiate directly with the Koreans because the
Kabul administration is not sincere about releasing the Taliban
prisoners," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone from an
undisclosed location.
Two of the 23 South Koreans kidnapped on July 19 have been killed. But
after another deadline passed Wednesday, Ahmadi said the remaining
hostages were still alive.
On Wednesday, Afghan army helicopters dropped leaflets warning citizens
of upcoming military action in Ghazni province, where the church group
volunteers were kidnapped while traveling by bus from Kabul to the
southern city of Kandahar.
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