Afghan militants free 12 S. Koreans

The Taliban on Wednesday freed 12 South Korean hostages kidnapped almost six weeks ago and promised to release the other seven Christian aid workers still in its custody as soon as possible.

The move followed an agreement struck Tuesday between the radical Islamic movement and a delegation of South Korean diplomats.

Three female hostages were the first to be released Wednesday, handed over to an Afghan tribal elder who had acted as a mediator in those negotiations and who reportedly walked several miles into Taliban-controlled territory to collect them, according to an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the release.

The elder then escorted the women on foot to freedom. South Korean government officials said all three appeared to be in good health.

A second group of hostages, reportedly four women and a man, was later released from another location. A third group of four was freed before dusk on a road about 30 miles from the central Afghan city of Ghazni.

The Taliban earlier said it had divided the Koreans into small groups and scattered them across central Afghanistan to thwart any rescue attempts.

Gunmen had seized 23 members of Saemmul Church on July 19 as the Christian volunteers were traveling by bus in Ghazni province. Two men in the group were later slain, and two women released because they were in poor health.

The freedom of the 12 hostages came one day after the Taliban and the South Korean government reached a deal that apparently required only minor concessions from Seoul -- though some critics said that, by merely talking to the Taliban, Seoul had given it some of the legitimacy and prestige it seeks.

South Korean diplomats pledged only to honor a previous commitment to pull the country’s roughly 200 noncombat military contingent out of Afghanistan by the end of this year. They also agreed to bar Christian groups and other nongovernmental organizations from traveling to and working in the war-ravaged country, although Seoul had already clamped down on Christian missionaries seeking to visit countries where their presence is seen as an irritant.

But the Taliban apparently failed to win the release of prisoners held by Afghan or U.S. authorities, which the militants had said would be the price of the Koreans’ freedom.

The Taliban’s readiness to concede on its demand for a prisoner swap also raised suspicion that the South Korean government had paid a ransom, though both sides denied that money had changed hands.

A South Korean government spokesman said money wasn’t discussed during talks with the militia, which was ousted from power by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 and is fighting Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops.

“Korean diplomacy has achieved relative success,” said Chang Noh-soon, a professor of political science at Halla University, though he added that the cost of the crisis is that Seoul has shown a willingness to talk to terrorists at an official level.

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bruce.wallace@latimes.com

Special correspondent Faiez reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Wallace from Tokyo. Staff writer Jinna Park in Seoul contributed to this report.