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Minister of the Foreign Affairs Ministry Ban Ki-moon
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Minister of the Foreign Affairs Ministry Ban Ki-moon said while meeting with reporters Sunday that, ¡°22 Koreans remain in Iraq, no matter how the Korean government tried to persuade them to leave the country due to the dangerous situation. 16 of them are from Gana General Trading Company [where Kim Sun-il belonged to].¡±
There are 15 more Koreans in Iraq, including reporters, and 11 of them are known to be leaving Iraq soon. While there is high criticism on the Foreign Ministry for ignoring the inquiry of Kim¡¯s hostage from Associated Press, the Foreign Ministry emphasized, starting from Ministry Ban, that security within a dangerous area is the responsibility of the individual as well.
Vice Minister of the Foreign Affairs Ministry Choi Young-jin said to the reporters this day that ¡°The Foreign Ministry has been advising to leave Iraq because it is dangerous but left the Koreans in Iraq who had bad economic situations. From now on, we will force them to leave Iraq and will remind the fact that the life of the remaining people is up to themselves. This is a sort of a guide line.¡±
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An Iraqi woman runs out of her house with her children when U.S. soldiers enter a building to search on Saturday.
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Foreign Ministry officials denied reports that plane tickets were hard to come by, saying, ¡°There were reports that it is hard to get plane tickets from Iraq, but actually, the tickets may be purchase without hardships." Ban said, ¡°Cases [like Kim Sun-il] may happen again. In a situation where we have 6 million Koreans abroad and 7 million Koreans traveling abroad every year, it is impossible for the 900 legation staff to safe guard them all. The Foreign Ministry is in panic right now.¡±
Asked whether the Foreign Ministry employee who received the inquiry from AP reported to his boss, Ban replied that he did not, saying, ¡°Originally he should have... He is being scolded for this.¡± Ban said, ¡°The government made mistakes, but the Foreign Ministry did not hide any facts and is not a criminal.¡±
(Kwon Kyung-bok, kbb@chosun.com )
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