Taliban Agrees to Release 19 South Korean Hostages in Afghanistan

Widescreen: Iran | Syria

Taliban Agrees to Release 19 South Korean Hostages in Afghanistan

by John Little on 28/08/2007

Great news out of South Korea:

South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday that negotiators from the South Korean government and the Taliban reached an agreement to release all of the 19 South Korean hostages still held in Afghanistan.

“The South Korean government welcomes the agreement on the hostage release,” presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said in a press conference.

CNN has more information on the terms of the agreement:

Under the terms of the agreement, South Korea agreed to stick by its previous decision to withdraw its 200 non-combat troops from Afghanistan, which work mostly in an engineering and medical capacity.

In addition, Seoul will halt all Christian missionary work in Afghanistan.

The spokesman said there was no agreement to pay the captors, nor was there any mention of releasing Taliban prisoners — a major demand of the kidnappers.

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There are 2 comments in this article:

28/08/2007Dave says:

I can’t think of a single reason why a sovereign nation sitting down at the negotiating table with a terrorist organization full of animals and barbarians could be described as “great,” especially when the terms they agree to are withdrawing personnel that are helping to build Afghanistan’s infrastructure. Now the Taliban knows that in order to continue their mission of dragging Afghanistan into the Dark Ages (before moving on to the rest of the region), all they have to do is go out and kidnap more engineers and construction workers.
28/08/2007Blogs of War says:

That fact that 19 innocent people stand a chance at freedom (and life) is definitely great news regardless of the terms of the agreement. My comment was reserved for that fact. I did not address the terms which I agree are less than ideal.

Blogs of War