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Pro-Taliban militants take control of a mosque of a shrine which is named after Islamabad's radical Red Mosque in Lakarai in Pakistan's tribal area of Mohamand along Afghanistan's border on Tuesday./AP
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Korean hostage negotiators have agreed to direct talks with Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan, a purported spokesman for the Islamists militants told DPA Thursday. The news agency quoted Qari Yousuf Ahmadi as saying Korean Ambassador to Afghanistan Kang Sung-ju spoke directly by phone with his Taliban counterpart. Arab news channel Al Jazeera quoted the Taliban as saying they had not killed any more Korean hostages as they believes the chance of direct talks with the Korean delegation could open a new phase in negotiations.
Ahmadi earlier told AP and AFP the Koreans had not requested direct talks with the militants, but the insurgents would be willing to hold such a meeting in Taliban-controlled territory. Ahmadi said the surviving 21 Korean hostages are not in Ghazni Province, where they were kidnapped, but are held in separate groups in Zabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
Meanwhile, President Roh Moo-hyun's special envoy Baek Jong-chun is now in Pakistan. In a meeting with the leader of Pakistan¡¯s pro-Taliban opposition party Jamiat Ulama Islam, he hinted at an earlier withdrawal of Korean troops from Afghanistan, AFP reported. It said Baek told party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman that Korea will pull its forces out of Afghanistan before the original schedule set at late this year.
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Korean presidential envoy Baek Jong-chun closes his car door after a meeting with the leaders of Pakistan's hardline Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) at Parliament House in Islamabad on Thursday. /AFP
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Also on Thursday, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said Korea and the U.S. rule out any military rescue operations. He made the remark after a meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum, which opened in Manila on Thursday. However, AP quoted Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher as telling reporters, ¡°All pressures need to be applied to the Taliban to get them to release these hostages.
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(englishnews@chosun.com )
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