Attempt to rescue Koreans not ruled out

The United States is not ruling out military force to free South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

“All pressures need to be applied to the Taliban to get them to release these hostages,” said Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asian affairs. “The goal is to get these people released unharmed, to get them released peacefully and safely.”

Boucher noted cooperation among the United States, Afghanistan and South Korea.

“There are things that we say, things that others say, things that are done and said within Afghan society as well as potential military pressures,” Boucher said.

South Korea appealed to the U.S. for help after the slayings of two of the 23 Christian aid workers abducted July 19 on the Kandahar-Kabul road.

Boucher’s remarks appeared to be at odds with those of a South Korean official, who said that Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had agreed during a meeting in the Philippines to rule out a military attempt to end the standoff.

A delegation of South Korean lawmakers left for Washington in the latest diplomatic effort to urge the Bush administration to help end the crisis.

In Afghanistan, officials searched for a place that would be safe for both South Korean negotiators and Taliban militants to hold face-to-face talks. Afghan officials said the militants had agreed to meet with South Korea’s ambassador but that they had not yet agreed on a venue.

“If the Taliban want to come to the area where we are for the sake of these hostages, 100%, they will be safe,” said Marajudin Pathan, governor of Ghazni province, where the hostages are believed to be held.

But he said both sides have proposed places that could put people at risk.

“The Koreans told the Taliban to come” to the office of the provincial reconstruction team, which is run by international troops, “and the Taliban told the Koreans to come to their base,” Pathan said.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said that the South Koreans had not requested direct talks with the militants but that the insurgents would be willing to hold such a meeting in Taliban-controlled territory.

A South Korean Embassy official in Kabul, the capital, would not confirm any Korean efforts to hold face-to-face talks with the Taliban.

Ahmadi said the remaining 21 hostages were alive but that two of the women were very sick.

Afghan officials have said the militants have demanded the release of Taliban fighters from Ghazni province as well as a former militia spokesman, Mohammad Hanif.

The Afghan government has said it is opposed to a prisoner swap out of concern that it could encourage more kidnappings.