Korean Job Discussion Forums

[toddswift]

I knew they paid, brought it up in class and everyone denies it denies it, what brave people and where does the cash go, to those insurgents, way to go little ko.


SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea paid at least US$4 million for the release of 21 South Korean Christian aid workers in Afghanistan held hostage by Taliban militia in August last year, Newsweek magazine reported in its latest edition.

The South Korean government has denied allegations that it made any payment to the Taliban rebels to win the release of the 21 evangelical missionaries held hostage in the war-torn Central Asian state while on a humanitarian mission. Two other Korean captives were executed just days after they were captured in July.

Seoul has said the captive Koreans were released on its promise to pull about 200 South Korean troops out of Afghanistan by the end of last year and ban any evangelical missions by South Korean Christians in the predominantly Islamic Central Asian state.

The weekly magazine, in its Feb. 6 edition, quoted an anonymous senior Taliban commander as saying that the South Korean government paid at least $4 million for the release of the South Koreans and that the cash was delivered to the insurgents in the Pakistani frontier city of Quetta.

The magazine cited another senior Taliban leader Ustad Yasir having said in this week's
edition of Afaq, a Pashtu-language magazine published in Pakistan, that "If we were going to free them without any payment, [the hostage taking] would not have been worth it. The best way to release them was with a ransom payment."
Another Taliban official said that 35 percent of the ransom went to the local insurgent group in Ghazni, where the Koreans were kidnapped, and that the rest were funneled to the ruling Taliban council presided over by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

[lastat06513]

No comment.....literally, none.....

[laogaiguk]

every part of that whole situation was stupid.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I still think the government should have offered to turn Sammeul Presbyeterian Church in Seoul into a mosque in exchange for their release.

[ED209]

Should have given them traveller's checks from KB.

[pkang0202]

Well, its like this; who is more cowardly, kidnapping civilian missionaries holding them hostage and killing them, or paying money to those kidnappers to get the people back.


Remember in the 1980's with the Iran-Contra Affair?

[twg]

[JAWINSEOUL]

This is the same issue as the Somalia Pirates. They paid money for the release of a boat, not long after another boat was held ransom. All that did was made Korea a big target for these people.

Picture same situation, but now substitute China for Korea. The Chinese government would, in my opinion, bomb both boats and put an end to any future thoughts of piracy involving a Chinese vessel.

No offence meant to China.

[SHANE02]

[Passions]

What do Koreans care? It was a win-win situation for them.

$4 million got them their citizens. They withdrew all aid/troops from Afghanistan. The money would only further terrorism against US and coalition troops, but not Korean troops. So as far as the ordinary Korean is concerned, they won everything from this deal.

When was the last time you've seen a Korean display remorse or grief over a foreigner's death? Remember, Koreans only care about themselves.

[4 months left]

[RACETRAITOR]

Why is this in the news again?

And I agree that it's cowardly. The government shouldn't have bailed out its missionaries. They had been sternly warned, and even physically prevented, from going there. It's people like them that peanuts come in packages with the warning "may contain nuts."

[jdog2050]

[jdog2050]

[Tokki1]

Silver suitcase full of W100,000 cheques.