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Taliban may delay direct talks with S. Korea until after U.S. summit
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- Taliban kidnappers holding South Korean hostages may be deliberately delaying direct talks with South Korea until after key meetings in the U.S. and with Pakistan, legislators from Seoul said Friday, quoting the Afghan envoy here.
Amb. Said Jawad said the kidnappers may wait and see the results of the U.S.-Afghanistan summit this weekend and the upcoming Islamic Council meeting before sitting down with South Korean officials, according to the legislators. More than 700 tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan will attend the council meeting.
Twenty-three South Korean civilians were abducted on July 19 while traveling in Afghanistan for volunteer work sponsored by a church. Two men were shot to death, and two women hostages are said to be in a critical condition requiring urgent medical care. The purported Taliban spokesman threatened that more will be executed unless the Afghan government agrees to exchange the captives with Taliban prisoners.
The government of Hamid Karzai rejected the demand, and the U.S. reiterated its longstanding policy of not making concessions to terrorists or hostage takers.
The Taliban sought direct negotiations with South Korea, but the meeting expected as early as Friday was reportedly postponed over disputes on the venue. The militant group asked that the United Nations provide a security guarantee before the meeting takes place.
Karzai comes to Washington for a two-day summit with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David, a retreat in Maryland, from Sunday.
A group of South Korean lawmakers was in Washington to meet with U.S. officials and to discuss means to resolve the hostage crisis.
Arriving Thursday, they met Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, several congressmen and think tank experts and sought "flexibility" by Washington in efforts to obtain the captives' release, the lawmakers said.
Some in Seoul argue that the U.S. should assume a bigger role in solving the crisis, saying it can exert influence on Afghanistan, a country it cooperates closely with in a battle against terrorism after toppling the Taliban.
U.S. officials talked about "creative diplomacy," they said, addressing the humanitarian need to get the hostages freed while adhering to the principle of not negotiating with terrorists.
Burns promised that the U.S. will "remain actively involved" until the hostages are released, they said.
But the undersecretary was clearly against a hostage exchange, citing to the lawmakers past U.S. experiences where freed prisoners rearmed and rejoined the rebel insurgency.
Other U.S. officials stressed that South Korea is a "global player" and should view the current crisis from this perspective, according to the lawmakers.
ldm@yna.co.kr
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