2nd Round of Hostage Talks Delayed
South Korean officials arrived Thursday morning at the office of the Afghan Red Crescent to resume face-to-face talks with the Taliban over 19 church volunteers who are still being held hostage in Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
There was no sign of the Taliban delegation, however, and Afghan officials said the talks might start in the late afternoon. It was not immediately clear what caused the delay.
After a day of over-the-phone talks, the Taliban had announced Wednesday that direct talks would resume on Thursday for the remaining 19 South Korean hostages who were part of the original group of 23 that was seized July 19 while traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar to deliver humanitarian aid.
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"The talks will resume tomorrow at 10 o'clock (3:30 a.m. EDT) in the same place in Ghazni province," said purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse.
It has been nearly a month since the Taliban militants kidnapped the group of 23 Christian volunteers – the largest abduction of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Since then, two male hostages have been killed – the leader of the group, Bae Hyung-kyu, who was found dead on July 25, and 29-year-old Shim Sung-min, whose body was found July 30.
Most recently, two South Korean women were released after the first round face-to-face talks between the Taliban and a South Korean delegation. It was the first breakthrough in a drama that has made headlines around the world.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry identified the freed hostages as 37-year-old Kim Kyung-ja and 32-year-old Kim Ji-na, who were said to be ill to the point where their lives were in danger.
Immediately following the breakthrough, no second round of in-person talks were scheduled, with the Taliban explaining that negotiators on both sides were taking time to discuss the situation with their superiors.
Although outwardly the rebels still appear to be demanding a prisoner-hostage exchange, inside reports say a ransom deal is quietly taking place.
Taliban negotiators have reportedly asked for $500,000 for the release of each hostage or a total of nearly $10 million. South Korea, meanwhile, has said they are willing to pay $500,000 for all 19 remaining hostages, according to The Korea Times.
If the report is true, both sides likely resorted to ransom negotiations after Washington and Kabul both made it clear that there will be no exchange of Taliban prisoners for Korean hostages – the Taliban's main demand since the beginning. Rebel prisoners are held by Afghan and U.S. military, and South Korea has repeatedly told the Taliban that they have no control over the release of the rebels.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was criticized by the United States and other Western countries earlier this year for giving into terrorism after he released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian reporter in March. Although the Afghan president has vowed that the trade was a one-time deal, critics say the prisoner exchange incident was enough to encourage recent abductions in the country.
With the U.S. and Afghan governments taking a hard-line stance against a prisoner swap, current South Korea-Taliban talks appear to be one of the last hopes.
Christian Post reporter Michelle Vu in Washington contributed to this article.
