S. Korean Worker Slain by Kidnappers in Iraq

The death "breaks our heart," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong Kil said while announcing Kim's death to the nation. Reading from a statement in a later briefing, he firmly told reporters that "our government's basic spirit and position has not changed. We confirm that again because our troop deployment is for reconstruction and humanitarian aid support for Iraq." South Korea has had about 670 military medics and engineers in southern Iraq since May last year.

Indeed, confirmation of Kim's death dealt a swift blow to the nation, blunted only by the fact that most South Koreans were asleep at the time the news broke around 1:30 a.m. Virtually all networks quickly turned to the home of Kim's lower middle-class parents in the southern city of Pusan, who collapsed in grief and tears, laying prostrate before a traditional death alter they had arranged with his photo.

Kim, an evangelical Christian who had majored in Arabic, English and theology with university scholarships, was working as a translator for a private South Korean contractor providing clothes and food to the U.S. military in Iraq, hoping to save enough money to fulfill his dream of becoming a missionary, his family said. "How could it have come to this?" a distraught neighbor, in tears, shouted at reporters as she consoled Kim's parents. "How can we have faith in the world anymore?"

Despite government pledges to hold firm, Kim's death was almost sure to ignite wider resistance in South Korea to the already deeply-unpopular involvement in Iraq. Polls show that more than 56 percent of the population oppose the dispatch. More than a thousand South Koreans took to the streets for a second day today, demanding a South Korean pull out of Iraq, while hundreds more took part in candlelight vigils for Kim.

The government here convened a meeting of the National Security Council Wednesday to discuss the impact of the execution on Seoul's plan to deploy troops to Iraq, Yonhap said.

A group of politicians from the left-leaning Uri Party aligned with Roh additionally vowed to join with almost two dozen opposition lawmakers to present legislation in the National Assembly on Wednesday seeking to scrap the troop deployment. Before Kim's murder was announced, analysts predicted they would not win enough votes to pass the measure, but the impact of the death on South Korean public attitudes remained unclear.

The participation in Iraq, however, is viewed as essential to shoring up Seoul's relations with the United States, which have grown strained in recent months as South Korea has improved ties with communist North Korea, even as Washington has sought to isolate the Pyongyang government because of its avowed nuclear weapons programs.

Experts also believe the kidnapping of Kim will continue to stoke opposition to South Korea's participation in Iraq as well as growing anti-U.S. sentiments here. A coalition of 365 civic groups from around the nation petitioned the government to reverse course on Iraq, saying, "[W]e desperately hope the government will show wise courage; The most obvious solution . . . to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents is for the government to reconsider its decision to dispatch additional troops."

A distraught collage friend of Kim's demanded the government explain why it failed to do more to win his release. "We longed for his safe return with the candlelight vigils, and people were desperately praying, all in vain," said Lee Sang Hoon, 27. "I just can't believe this has happened. Somebody has got to take responsibility for this."

Staff writer William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.