The South Korean delegation and the Taliban militants of Afghanistan have been making rapid progress on the release of 21 Korean hostages in the second round of the face-to-face talks in Ghazni Saturday, media reports said.
The Taliban are expected to free the Korean captives soon, Reuters quoted Taliban negotiators as saying without offering details.
"We assure you (the media) and the whole world that all of the Koreans will be released and will go to their homes," Mawlavi Nasrullah, one of the two Taliban negotiators, was quoted as saying.
"And our prisoners will come to their homes," he told reporters in Ghazni town where the Taliban and Korean diplomats have been holding talks since late Friday.
It is not clear what, if any, authority the South Korean negotiators have to arrange for Taliban prisoners to be exchanged for the South Koreans being held, which has been a consistent demand of the Taliban, Reuters said.
Two members of the top militant council _ Mullah Bashir and Mullah Nasorullah _ traveled to the central Afghan city of Ghazni, near where the South Koreans were kidnapped on July 19, the Associated Press said.
Another Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujaheed, said Saturday that the government in Kabul gave the Taliban a written guarantee _ also signed by American and other foreign officials _ that the two Taliban would be safe, AP said.
The talks are being held at the Afghan Red Cross in Ghazni. Red Cross officials drove the four Korean delegates and the Taliban leaders to the office Saturday in separate vehicles, according to AP.
The Afghan government has "given them the freedom of secrecy to talk with each other," AP said, adding that no Afghan officials were taking part in the talks. The government had guaranteed the Taliban members' "safety and security," AP quoted a local government official as saying.
On the other hand, a leading Japanese daily reported Saturday that U.S. military personnel attended the South Korea-Taliban talks Friday.
Mainichi Shimbun revealed this, citing a ranking official of the Ghazni Province who was in charge of mediation over release of the hostages.
In the face-to-face talks, the Taliban repeated their call for release of three to four Taliban prisoners held at the U.S. Air Force base in Bagram, Afghanistan, the daily said.
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