By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A South Korean woman and eight other foreigners appear to have been abducted by a group of insurgents in Yemen, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Sunday.
A ministry spokesman said, however, no clear evidence has emerged to confirm the kidnapping.
``No one has yet claimed responsibility for the alleged kidnapping, so we cannot confirm the foreigners, including a South Korean national, were abducted,'' the spokesman said on condition of anonymity. ``Against that backdrop, we see the incident as a missing person case.''
But the chances of the group _ belonging to Worldwide Service, an international medical assistance organization _ being kidnapped are high given the circumstances involved, he noted, adding security conditions in the northern Sada Province are not stable and abductions often occur there.
``We're in close cooperation with the Yemeni interior ministry, as well as the governments of the United Kingdom and Germany, to find out more details,'' he said.
The group, mostly women and children, are comprised of seven Germans, a British engineer and the South Korean woman identified only by her surname Eom, according to the ministry.
Eeom had been assisting South Korean medics in Sada since last August and was scheduled to return home this summer, it said.
The 34-year-old has been out of contact since last Friday, when she went out for a picnic in the province, about 200 kilometers north of the Yemeni capital of Sanna.
In March, four South Korean tourists were killed and three others wounded in Yemen in a terrorist bomb attack in the historic city of Shibam, some 90 kilometers east of Sanna.
Since the terrorist attack, Seoul has placed a travel warning on Yemen