CATHERINE, Egypt (Yonhap) -- Three Koreans were freed Saturday one day after being kidnapped in the Sinai Peninsula by Bedouin tribesmen who sought the release of fellow tribespeople from Egyptian captivity.
An Egyptian tour guide, abducted from a tour bus with the Koreans near the St. Catherine monastery on the Sinai Peninsula Friday, was also freed.
The four arrived at the Catherine Plaza Hotel around 9:40 p.m. (Egyptian standard time).
"We were not assaulted, or treated badly," said Pastor Lee Min-song, 53, one of the freed Koreans. "We are all well."
The other two freed South Koreans are Lee Jong-dal, 62, and Mo Jong-mun, 59.
The Korean Christians were taken by the armed tribesmen while on their way to the St. Catherine monastery as part of a 10-day pilgrimage to Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
Lee said his group will continue the pilgrimage as scheduled before coming back to Seoul Friday.
He thanked the South Korean government and people for their efforts to release him and his colleagues.
"I heard that negotiations were going well and we would soon be freed," he said, speaking of their time in captivity.
The South Korean government had asked Cairo to help win the release of the Korean captives soon after their abduction, and the Sinai governor had contacted the chief tribesman asking for their release.
The Seoul government raised their alert on travel to the Sinai Peninsula from level two to three, one notch shy of a full travel ban.
Kidnappings of foreigners have taken place in Egypt in recent months amid civil demonstrations and political uncertainty after the fall of the decades-old authoritarian Mubarak regime last year, crippling the Egyptian tourism industry.
The kidnappers had demanded the release of a 29-year-old tribesman detained for the armed robbery of a bank on the Sinai Peninsula, officials here said. It is not clear whether the armed robber was freed.
South Korean ambassador to Egypt Yoon Jong-gon said via telephone he did not know details of the negotiations between the Egyptian government and the tribesmen.
"I understand the Egyptian government agreed to positively consider the release of the detained Bedouin on condition that the Korean captives were released," another official said, asking for anonymity.
Mo, one of the captives, said she and her companions were treated well by the kidnappers.
"They told us that they were fighting against the Egyptian government," she said. "They apologized to us for the abduction."
Mo said the Bedouin tribesmen targeted any foreigners.
"They did not intend to target Koreans," she said. "They wanted to kidnap any foreigners as part of their effort to fight against the Egyptian government."
Mo said the tribesmen did not tell her why they abducted her and her colleagues.
"They told us the Egyptian government did not make good on the pledge it made on the 'U.S. incident'," she said, referring to the failure by Egyptian authorities to meet the demands of Bedouin tribesmen despite them releasing two American captives last week.
(Yonhap)