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S.Korea vows to send Iraq troops despite kidnapping
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-22 01:08
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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