中东信仰坚定恐分子绑架23韩国基督徒,威胁不撤军就杀基督徒,韩国妥协
(2007-07-22 08:05:08)
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Asia Pacific News
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/289702/1/.html
中东信仰坚定恐分子绑架23韩国基督徒,威胁不撤军就杀基督徒,韩国妥协
中东神,势不两立.看不出哪个是真神.
South Korea\'s cabinet holds crisis meeting over kidnapped Christians
Posted: 22 July 2007 1448 hrs
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South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun
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SEOUL - South Korea\'s cabinet and security chiefs held an emergency meeting Sunday as an apparent deadline loomed for the fate of 23 nationals kidnapped in Afghanistan by Islamic extremists.
The Korean Christians were seized on Thursday while travelling on a bus in Afghanistan\'s insurgency-hit south, during an evangelical aid mission in the war-torn nation.
A spokesman for the fundamentalist Taliban has warned that the 23 Koreans could be killed by 1430 GMT Sunday unless the same number of jailed extremist fighters were freed before then.
The spokesman has already claimed two German and five Afghan hostages were killed Saturday after Berlin and Kabul failed to meet tight deadlines for talks. His claims, however, could not be verified.
South Korea\'s foreign minister, defence minister, the head of the country\'s spy agency and other security officials met in Seoul early Sunday.
The meeting, details of which have not been released, came as a South Korean crisis team was due to arrive in Kabul to spearhead efforts to try to win the release of the nationals.
The team, led by Vice Foreign Minister Cho Jung-Pyo, was expected to meet Afghan authorities in the capital later in the day, officials here have said.
South Korean officials said they were adopting a cautious approach to the demand for the release of Taliban prisoners.
There have been reports about the demand for the release of Taliban prisoners but we cannot rely on media reports only, an unidentified government official was quoted saying Sunday by South Korea\'s Yonhap news agency.
Through the contact channels we have established, we are checking whether this demand for the release of Afghan prisoners came from the leadership of the armed group, he said.
The Taliban has also demanded the withdrawal of South Korean troops from Afghanistan. Seoul responded Saturday by saying its 200 army engineers and medics would pull out on schedule by year\'s end.
President Roh Moo-Hyun has urged the safe return of the Christian group, stressing they had all been engaged in aid activities. - AFP/ir