By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea-U.S. relations have undergone 54 years of ups and downs, with remarkable development as one of the strongest alliances in the world. Now the relations face a fresh test over the prolonged hostage crisis in Afghanistan.
As negotiations over Korean hostages being held by Taliban militants have made little headway with two captives already being killed, the Seoul government is desperately looking for the United States to help in the release of the remaining 21 hostages by pushing the Afghan government to free jailed Taliban fighters.
The Islamic fundamentalists have called for releasing their comrades in prisons, including some high-profile commanders in the custody of the U.S. military, in exchange for the hostages.
But the Taliban's demand is unacceptable to the U.S. government, in the real world, which has maintained a policy of ``no concessions to terrorists'' since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, a U.S. expert said.
``The hostage crisis is such a complicated issue that could affect the relationship between South Korea and the United States,'' Prof. Kim Sung-han at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said in a phone interview with The Korea Times.
``For South Korea, the hostage issue is a matter of the lives of citizens. For the United States, on the other hand, the issue is a matter of the global war on terror,'' Kim said. ``That is, the Bush administration under extreme pressure over the deteriorating situation in Iraq knows too well that conceding to the Taliban in the other war front, Afghanistan, would be a heavy political burden.''
In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Tom Casey called the crisis a ``terrible, terrible incident.'' He said the issue would be discussed during summit talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai from Sunday but reaffirmed the U.S. policy not to concede to hostage-takers and terrorists.
``Because if people can get concessions and can get things as a result of hostage-taking, what it will mean is that there will be only increased levels of hostage-taking and increased violence as a result,'' Casey said. ``So our policy has not changed.''
Kim was worried that some progressive activists and lawmakers could abuse the issue as a tool for stoking anti-American sentiment as it did in 2002, when two school girls _ Shim Mi-son and Shim Hyo-sun _ were accidentally struck and killed by a U.S. armored vehicle north of Seoul.
The spread of anti-American sentiment harmed relations between the two countries at that time and is considered to have had a big influence on the 2002 presidential election that liberal-minded Roh Moo-hyun won on the ticket of the then ruling Millennium Democratic Party.
Civic groups Wednesday held a rally near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, calling on Washington to proactively engage in negotiations with Taliban insurgents to free the hostages. They said the United States is responsible for the crisis in some part because the Taliban kidnapped the Korean church group to disturb the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, including hundreds of South Korean troops.
``Of course, the best scenario is that the United States makes a decision to help the remaining Korean hostages be freed from the Taliban at an early date,'' Kim said. ``But even if it does not so, Koreans should not shift blame onto the U.S. government because such a move could compromise the relations seriously more than that in 2002.
Korean legislators also rolled their sleeves to solicit U.S. help.
A group of eight South Korean political leaders arrived in Washington, D.C. to meet U.S. congressmen and officials and ask them to help bring Korean hostages home unharmed and safe.
The delegation of floor leaders of five major political parties will stay in the U.S. until Monday to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and other officials, party officials said.
The delegation also plans to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, to appeal for international support in resolving the crisis, they said.