A special South Korean presidential envoy met with Afghan officials in Kabul on Saturday on a mission to secure the release of 22 South Koreans seized by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan 10 days ago, South Korean officials in Seoul said.
Baek Jong-chun, national security adviser to President Roh Moo-hyun, arrived in the Afghan capital on Friday as negotiations to free the hostages dragged on. South Korean officials said the envoy was seeking a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"Though no schedule has been set, we expect Baek to meet the Afghan president soon," an official in Seoul said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
South Korean government sources say Baek is expected to ask the Afghan president to be flexible on the demands by the kidnappers and to convey Roh's request to make the release of the hostages a top priority.
"Sending a presidential special envoy is the best possible choice the president can make at this point," South Korean presidential spokesman Chun Ho-seon told reporters on Friday.
One key Taliban demand is the trading of the 22 remaining South Korean captives for an equal number of insurgent prisoners.
But Afghan President Hamid Karzai is reported to reluctant to meet the Korean envoy because he could hardly commit any promise concerning the swap between hostages and Taliban prisoners, sources said.
President Karzai has pledged not to swap prisoners for hostages after being criticized for releasing five Taliban from jail in March in exchange for an Italian reporter.
A group of 23 South Korean aid workers were seized at gunpoint by Taliban militants on July 19 from a bus traveling from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. Its leader, pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was found killed by the kidnappers Wednesday.
The Afghan government, apparently mindful of international criticism, is reportedly reluctant to make any deal with the Taliban for the release of the Koreans, but earlier this year it set free five Taliban prisoners to win the release of an Italian journalist.
The body of the slain Korean pastor was to be airlifted back to Seoul Sunday, but his family asked their government to delay the plan until all the hostages are released. The overnment said it would respect the family's request, but noted there could be complications.
As negotiations to free the Korean captives prolonged, concern has arisen over their health. One of the hostages, Yoo Jung-hwa, 39, told Reuters Saturday in a mobile phone of a Taliban fighter said all of them were were tired and being move from one location to another.
"We are kept in separate groups and are not aware of each other. We ask the Taliban and the government to release us," she was quoted as saying in broken Dari, one of the main languages in Afghanistan. Pronunciation of her name could not be understood by a Reuters reporter who spoke to her, according to Reuters.
South Korean officials said a package of medicine and food has been passed to the Afghan government for delivery to the hostages.
"We believe it must have already left the hands of the Afghan government and could have also been delivered to the hostages," an official at the South Korean Foreign Ministry told reporters, asking that he will not to be identified due to diplomatic protocol.
South Korea has been working closely with the United States and other allies with troops in Afghanistan, because a possible hostage-for-prisoner swap would require their approval.
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon again talked to his U.S. counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, on Saturday over the phone to ask for Washington's help for an early release of the Korean hostages, according to ministry officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Song also had a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, they said.
"The consultations between South Korea and the United States are in line with the same diplomatic efforts South Korea is making to resolve this hostage crisis as dispatching of Baek Jong-chun as a presidential envoy to Afghanistan to meet with local government
officials there," an official said.
(Yonhap)