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S.Korea vows to send Iraq troops despite kidnapping
South Korea will go ahead with its plan to send 3,000 troops to help rebuild Iraq despite a threat from Iraqi militants to behead a South Korean hostage, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The government would do its best to seek the release of 33-year-old businessman Kim Sun-il, who has been shown repeatedly on South Korean television pleading for his life in English, Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin told reporters after a meeting of President Roh Moo-hyun's National Security Council.
Choi said Kim, an Arabic graduate, was kidnapped in Falluja on June 17 -- the day before South Korea announced where its troops would be deployed after months of agonizing because of security concerns and public opposition.
The group holding Kim said South Korea had 24 hours from Sunday night to withdraw its decision or they would behead him, Arabic television station Al Jazeera reported.
"I am telling you that there will be no change to our government's basic spirit and position --- our plan to send troops to Iraq is for the support and reconstruction of Iraq," Choi said. He chairs a task force set up to handle the crisis. The ministry asked Britain, China, Japan and Arab states to help.
Kim's employer, the president of the small Gana General Trading company, told Yonhap news agency militants were holding about 10 foreigners as well as the South Korean businessman.
With the 670 South Korean military medics and engineers already in Iraq, the new contingent would make South Korea's the third-largest force after those of the United States and Britain.
"I request the foreign ministry and other related agencies to make all their efforts to save him," said Roh in comments released by his office. Troops were being sent to reconstruct Iraq, he noted.
TOUGH BUT CRUCIAL
The president of Kim's company, which supplies goods for U.S. military shops, had initially sought to negotiate with the kidnappers without telling the government, Choi said.
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon cut short a trip to China to handle the crisis. Police boosted security at all U.S.-linked sites and those of other countries with troops in Iraq.
Al Jazeera broadcast the video of masked militants standing behind Kim as they made their threat. South Korean television showed the film repeatedly.
A banner in the background named his captors as Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian accused of links to al Qaeda. Last month Zarqawi's group beheaded U.S. hostage Nick Berg in Iraq.
"He should be released through negotiation. He should be saved," Kim's father said through sobs on YTN television. "My life is over without him.""
Kim's mother said the family had last had a telephone call from him in April. He is the seventh of eight children.
Many South Koreans reacted with shock, particularly because of the footage of Kim imploring people to help to free him. But most said Seoul should not alter its decision to send troops.
"I felt terribly chilled this morning watching the Korean crying and yelling in front of the terrorists' camera. I am so sorry for his family. But feeling sorry and national security should be considered separately," said Sung Jeong-hun, a 29-year-old graduate school student in Seoul.
"If we accept the terrorists' demand this time, the terrorists will continue threatening the world," he said. Roh seems unlikely to change tack, despite protests, although the crisis could magnify public and parliamentary opposition. He views the deployment as a tough but crucial gesture to support Seoul's main ally, the United States, which has 37,500 troops stationed in the South to deter North Korea. |
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