WASHINGTON -- The United States on Monday called on kidnappers in Afghanistan to immediately free the 23 South Korean hostages, Yonhap news agency reported.
"These are innocent people who pose no threat to anybody," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"We stand with the South Korean government while they follow this matter closely."
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state, echoed the same message, Yonhap said.
"We are in talks with the (South Korean) government, but we call upon the kidnappers to release these people immediately and let them go home," he told reporters.
The situation is of "great concern" to the entire international community," he said.
The Afghan rebel group Taliban last week seized the South Koreans, many of them women, who entered the country to do volunteer work.
The Taliban extended for the third time the deadline for their fate by another day to 14:30 GMT (11:30 p.m. Korean time) Tuesday as the insurgents sought direct contact with Seoul.
The extension comes amid concerns that the ongoing negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban rebels might drag on and that the Taliban might ask for a ransom instead of its initial demands for a South Korean troop withdrawal and the release of 23
Taliban prisoners.