S. Korea to send envoy to Libya in efforts to free hostage
By Kim Bo-eun
Baik Joo-hyeon
The government will send a special envoy to Libya this week as part of efforts to get a South Korean hostage there released.
Baik Joo-hyeon, former ambassador to Kazakhstan who also served as the director-general of the Consular Affairs Bureau, will meet with local authorities to discuss the matter. Baik was involved in efforts to free South Korean fishermen that were abducted by Somali pirates in 2010 and 2011.
“The government is sending an envoy considering that circumstances have changed due to a video clip that showed the hostages, being posted online earlier this month,” a foreign ministry official told reporters, Wednesday.
“The envoy will engage in discussions with local authorities for the earliest possible release of the hostage,” he said.
The authorities have also employed a risk management consulting firm to analyze the video clip of the hostages.
The video was posted on the Facebook account of a major news outlet in Libya, Aug. 1. The official said the video was first uploaded in a third country via an anonymous account.
In the video, one man identifies himself as Korean and three others as Filipino and they plead for help. A gunman stands behind them.
The South Korean and three Filipino men were kidnapped at a water plant in Jabal Hasouna in the western region of Libya, July 6, by an unidentified armed group. The South Korean is known to be a locally-employed man in his 60s.
The foreign ministry official said “The South Korean hostage appears to be in good condition, compared to the other hostages.”
The government's stance is that the armed group's identity, its motives or whether contact has been made with the group cannot be revealed at this point. The official said the armed group is “unlikely to be affiliated with extreme forces such as the Islamic State militant group.”
The envoy will likely spend two to three days in Libya, the official said.