South Korean Envoy Seized by Beirut Gunmen

Heavily armed gunmen kidnaped a South Korean diplomat Friday after shooting out the tires of his car as he drove to work in Muslim West Beirut, a Lebanese army officer said.

The officer and the South Korean Foreign Ministry in Seoul identified the diplomat as Do Chae Sung, 43, the South Korean Embassy’s second secretary and consul.

Col. Munir Malouli, chief of a special Lebanese army unit in charge of protecting foreign embassies in Beirut, said Do’s abduction occurred Friday morning when five gunmen in a green Mercedes-Benz intercepted his car about 50 yards from the South Korean Embassy, which is on Beirut’s seafront.

Taken at Gunpoint

The assailants, armed with pistols and Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles, shot out the front tires of Do’s car. Malouli said the kidnapers forced the diplomat out of the vehicle, bundled him into their car and sped off.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction, and neither Lebanese authorities nor officials from the South Korean Foreign Ministry cited a motive.

Do was the 39th foreigner to be kidnaped in Beirut since January, 1984, and the first Asian diplomat seized. Twelve other kidnap victims are still missing, including six Americans whose abduction was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a group believed made up of Shia Muslims with links to Iran.

First South Korean Taken

South Korean Foreign Ministry officials said Do’s wife and three children were reportedly in Beirut, but said they had no more details. They said Do was the first South Korean diplomat abducted abroad.

Do was abducted a few hours after two Lebanese Christian employees of the NBC television network were freed after 45 days of captivity in West Beirut.

Cameraman Melhem Hnein, 36, and driver Youssef Awad, 62, were kidnaped Dec. 16 as they crossed Beirut’s dividing Green Line from the primarily Christian eastern sector to the Muslim west side.

They were freed late Thursday after being held by a Shia Muslim family seeking the release of Yossef Sabbagh, held by a Christian militia, the Lebanese Forces, for allegedly killing a man last year in the southern Christian town of Jezzine.

A spokesman for NBC’s Beirut bureau, speaking on condition he not be identified, said Hnein and Awad had not been harmed in captivity. It was not immediately known whether Sabbagh was freed in exchange for the release of the two men.