Taliban S. Korea Struggling to Free Hostages

South Korean officials were holding emergency meetings and continuing their contacts with the Afghan government Monday to win the safe release of 23 Koreans taken hostage in Afghanistan, as the Monday night (Seoul time) deadline set by the kidnappers to start killing them is looming.

The militants had originally set a Sunday deadline, demanding the release of an equal number of Taliban prisoners and the withdrawal of about 200 South Korean troops in Afghanistan, but extended it to Monday, apparently to put pressure on South Korea

to persuade the Afghan government to release Taliban prisoners.

A South Korean official earlier said negotiations were under way for the safe release of the hostages, indicating that the efforts to free them would continue past the initial Sunday

deadline.

"The so-called deadline reported by various foreign news outlets is only one of the pieces of information we have. The government is handling this case with much more information than

just news reports," the official said, asking not be identified.

As negotiations were under way, the deadline had been extended to 11:30 p.m. on Monday (14:30 GMT), Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a purported spokesman for the Afghan Taliban movement, was quoted as saying by Arab TV network Al-Jazeera and other media.

"The Korean government should put pressure on the Afghan government to give a positive response to the Taliban's demands," Ahmadi said. "They should try to solve things through

negotiations in order to save the lives of the hostages and so they can get home without being harmed."

The extension of deadline came after Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said Seoul was in contact with the militant group "through various direct and indirect channels."

"As we expect to have a concrete assessment of the current situation, the government will work to win the safe return of the kidnapped," Cho told a press briefing Sunday.

The militant group had threatened to start killing the 23 captives, including 15 women, if the Afghan government did not release the same number of Taliban prisoners by the deadline. It

also demanded the withdrawal of South Korean troops from the war-torn country.

A government official, however, said it has yet to be confirmed whether the reported demands actually came from the kidnappers.

"We are trying to assess the overall situation while maintaining contacts through various channels," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the

sensitivity of the issue.

The Afghan militants earlier claimed to have killed two German hostages amid the German government saying it would not give in to demands by terrorists.

The kidnappers said they were giving more time to South Korea because of the high-level South Korean delegation which arrived in Afghan capital Kabul Sunday to negotiate with the Afghan government and other relevant parties.