By Emal Pashtunyar
Special to Korea Times
KABUL_ Taliban say they have executed another Korean hostage after the Afghan and Korean governments failed to accept their demands.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi told The Korea Times that the hostage, named Sung-min, son of Shin, was shot dead (around 1:00 a.m. KST) as the government failed to contact them after the expiry of the deadline on Monday. He is believed to be Shim Sung-min, 29.
He said the dead body was dumped in an uninhabited area in Andar district of Ghazni Province.
Asked about some reports of extension of the deadline, the Taliban spokesman said they were ready to continue the dialogue for a peaceful end, but neither the Afghan government, nor the Korean delegation came forward for negotiations throughout Monday.
About their future line of action regarding the kidnapped people, he ruled out any unconditional release of the hostages, including the women.
He said they had started killing the hostages and would kill the rest of the hostages one by one if the government and Korean delegation failed to accept their demands.
Officials in the district, where Taliban said they had dumped the body, said they had received reports about the killing of one of the Koreans but the body was yet to be recovered.
This is the second killing among the kidnapped Korean citizens. The first, also a male hostage, was shot dead on July 25.
The 23 Korean citizens were kidnapped while returning to Kabul from Kandahar Province. They were seized in Qarabagh district of Ghazni. Body of the previously killed hostage was found in Qarabagh district while the present one is located in Andar district of Ghazni.
Earlier a Taliban commander said that they had distributed the hostages in several groups and each group was kept separate from the other.
The second Korean citizen has been killed at a time when some government circles are talking of a military operation for the release of the captives.