Islamabad, Pakistan – South Korean negotiators and Taliban leaders have reached an agreement that will allow for the release of 19 hostages from a South Korean church who have been held by Afghan insurgents for nearly six weeks, officials in Afghanistan said Tuesday.
As many as eight of the hostages could be freed today, a Taliban representative said.
The Taliban initially took 23 South Koreans hostage, but two were killed by their captors and two were released. The church members were abducted July 19 in the central Afghan province of Ghazni as they traveled by bus between Kabul and Kandahar.
Mullah Basheer, a Taliban commander involved in the talks, said the militants will “hopefully” free five to eight captives today – including at least one man. He did not give further details.
The deal for the hostages’ release was struck during talks between Taliban negotiators and South Korean diplomats in the central city of Ghazni. The Afghan government was not party to the negotiations, which were mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In Seoul on Tuesday night, families of the hostages reacted to news of the agreement with whoops of joy and tears.
“I would like to dance,” Cho Myung Ho, mother of 28-year- old hostage Lee Joo Yeon, told reporters after hearing of the deal.
Later, in a nationally televised news conference, their spokesman apologized for a 41-day hostage drama that upset and inconvenienced the people and government of South Korea.
“We are very sorry to cause the nation so much concern and worry,” said Cha Sung Min, whose 32-year-old sister, Cha Hye Jin, was one of the hostages.
South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho Sun explained terms of the deal.
“The two sides reached agreement on the release of all 19 Korean hostages on condition that the Korean government withdraws its troops in Afghanistan by the end of this year and bans missionary work by Korean Christians in Afghanistan,” he said.
South Korea, though, seemed to give up little of substance in its negotiations. Seoul had already planned to withdraw its 200 noncombat troops by the end of the year, and the government has long been trying to prevent missionaries from causing trouble in countries where they were not wanted.
The South Korean government said Tuesday night that release of the hostages would not happen immediately, noting that further negotiations would be necessary.
The Korean news agency Yonhap reported that hostages were being held in different locations and that they may be released in groups of about three at a time over a period of up to five days.
Cheon said Korean negotiators had convinced their Taliban counterparts, who wanted to swap Korean hostages for Taliban prisoners held in Afghanistan, that any such deal was far beyond the power of South Korea.
“The Taliban appear to understand our point,” Cheon said. “It also seems that they were inconvenienced by holding as many as 19 people for such a long time.”
South Korea’s decision to hold face-to-face negotiations with the militants may dismay the U.S. government, which refuses to talk to the Taliban.
“The fact that the Koreans negotiated with them directly and more or less in their territory … is in itself an achievement,” said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
