Foreign Minister Song Min-soon requested Saudi Arabia Saturday to help win the release 19 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan amid reports that the Taliban were ready to release them.
Twenty-three South Korean aid workers were taken hostage by Taliban insurgents while traveling by bus from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar on July 19. The kidnappers later shot dead two male hostages but set free two female captives.
Song, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, paid a courtesy call on King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in Jedda and delivered him a letter from President Roh Moo-hyun, thanking him for his efforts to resolve the hostage crisis, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
The official quoted Abdullah as telling Song that he will continue to cooperate with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other Islamic leaders for the release of the Koreans.
The spokesman said the Saudi king denounced Taliban militants for violating the Islamic principles of upholidng peace, friendliness and leniency by kidnapping the South Koreans.
The two also discussed ways to enhance bilateral trade and investment, the spokesman said.
Saudi Arabia is the first leg of Song's four-nation tour that also includes stops in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Song is expected to seek cooperation of those countries for the release of the South Korean hostages.
Song is also supposed to seek ways to strengthen business ties with the Middle Eastern countries and boost cooperation with Russia in the railway and energy fields as well as the denuclearization of North Korea.