By Gul Khan
Korea Times
KABUL _ Taliban militants in Afghanistan have issued Sunday evening ultimatum to the Afghan government for talks over the release of the 23 Korean citizens.
The ultimatum - 7 p.m. local time on Sunday (11:30 p.m. Sunday in Korean Standard Time) - was issued after the militants announced the killing of five Afghan nationals, who were kidnapped along with two German engineers executed in the afternoon on Saturday.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said the Afghan government should release Taliban prisoners if it was interested in safety of the abducted Koreans. They wanted to exchange same numbers between Taliban prioners and Korean hostages.
He did not touch the subject of Korean troops' pullout during his talks with media.
Earlier, some media outlets, quoting the spokesman, reported that they had issued Saturday's deadline on the Korean hostages.
However, Ahmadi said their men had killed the Germans and Afghans as the respective government failed to come forward for negotiations and they would kill the Koreans if their demands were not accepted by the Afghan government.
Meanwhile, the South Korean government Saturday dispatched a task force led by Vice Foreign Minister Cho Jung-pyo to Afghanistan to prepare for the possible negotiations over the release and safe return of the Korean hostages.
There was confusion about the deadline of ultimatum as the Website of the Voice of Jihad, Imarat Islamic of Afghanistan, (www.alemaragh.org) posted the ultimatum hour as "7 am," which was quoted by pda, a German news agency.
"We declare an ultimatum for tomorrow 7:00 am for the South Koreans. If the government does not free 23 Taliban prisoners, these will be the last moments of their lives. ...The Koreans would also be executed if the Afghan government failed to release the Taliban prisoners till 7am on Sunday," the Website said.
But the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) corrected the morning hour to afternoon one.
The 23 Korean abductees had gone into the war-torn nation to volunteer medical services, fifteen of them women. They were seized at gunpoint from a bus while traveling to Kabul on a highway Thursday afternoon.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun went on national air and said the troops will leave the country by the end of this year as planned. He also said Seoul was open to any negotiations for the safe return of the hostages.