Koreans and Afghans negotiate ahead of captors' deadline

Taliban members holding 23 South Korean hostages agreed to extend the deadline for their execution for another 24 hours until 7 p.m. Tuesday (10:30 a.m. Eastern time). As talks continue, the Afghan government is refusing to release any of the 23 Taliban prisoners demanded by the militants in exchange for the Koreans. Meanwhile, Afghan security forces have surrounded the Taliban militants’ location. The captors say they will kill the Korean detainees if the government attempts to use force to free them. [Updated: 7/23/07, 11:45 a.m.]

Whether the Afghan government will meet the kidnappers' terms remains unclear. Last March, Afghan President Hamid Karzai authorized a prisoner exchange to free an Italian journalist, releasing five Taliban members in exchange for the reporter. The move drew international criticism, with many fearing that the exchange would encourage future kidnappings, reports The Independent. If negotiations fail, troops are standing by.

The police chief in Ghazni Province, Ali Shah Ahmadzai, said Afghan officials and elders had met with the kidnappers yesterday to try to find a solution. US and Afghan troops also moved into the region in case they were asked to rescue the hostages. "We have surrounded the area but are working very carefully. We don't want them to be killed," he said.

Militants kidnapped the Koreans while they traveled by bus on the road between Kandahar and Kabul. Despite tensions, however, both parties remain "optimistic" that they can reach a nonmilitary solution, reports The New York Times.

"A delegation from Korea arrived in Afghanistan today, and we hope to talk to them," said the [Taliban] spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, reached via telephone from an unknown location. "We are optimistic that the Afghan government can be convinced to release our prisoners."

Talks to resolve the crisis have already begun between the Taliban and tribal elders, according to Gen. Zaher Azimi, a spokesman for the defense ministry. "We're hoping this can be solved peacefully," he said.

However, Al Jazeera reports that Mr. Ahmadi said that though the talks continue, they are "not going well." He said the main problem was that the Afghan government delegation did not have "full authority" to authorize the release of the Taliban prisoners.

The Korean hostages were mostly teachers and nurses in their 20s and 30s. They formed part of an evangelical group running a "small and unobtrusive" medical charity in Kandahar, a Western official told the Guardian. The Korean Embassy in Kabul contends that the group was not conducting missionary work, an activity forbidden by Islam. Nevertheless, Afghanistan has long attracted South Korean Christians like those recently kidnapped.

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