Korean Hostage Killed by Taliban

Unidentified Korean officials, right, are seen during a meeting with the Mehra Juddin Patan, first left, the governor of Ghazni province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, July 24, 2007. Korean negotiators accompanied by Afghan elders and clerics met face-to-face with the kidnappers of 23 South Koreans Tuesday as a threatened Taliban deadline to execute them passed by once again. (AP Photo) (Str - AP)

Chun said that both governments were cooperating and that an Afghan official had told South Korea earlier Thursday that Kabul intended to negotiate with the Taliban. He said Seoul was aware of the Taliban's current demands but declined to specify them.

Seoul also repeated its call that no rescue mission be launched that could endanger the captives further.

"We oppose military operations and there won't be military operations that we do not consent to," Chun said.

Marajudin Pathan, the governor of Ghazni province, said militants have given a list of eight Taliban prisoners who they want released in exchange for eight Koreans.

An Afghan official involved in the negotiations earlier said a large sum of money would be paid to free eight of the hostages. The official also spoke on condition he not be identified, citing the matter's sensitivity. No other officials would confirm this account.

Foreign governments are suspected to have paid for the release of hostages in Afghanistan in the past, but have either kept it quiet or denied it outright. The Taliban at one point demanded that 23 jailed militants be freed in exchange for the Koreans.

The South Koreans, including 18 women, were kidnapped while on a bus trip through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare.

South Korea has banned its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan in the wake of the kidnappings. Seoul also asked Kabul not to issue visas to South Koreans and to block their entry into the country.

Baek will fly to Afghanistan later Thursday as a presidential envoy to consult with top Afghan officials on how to secure the release of the remaining captives.

The South Korean church that the abductees attend has said it will suspend at least some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan. It also stressed that the Koreans abducted were not involved in any Christian missionary work, saying they provided only medical and other volunteer aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country.

Two Germans were also kidnapped last week. One was found dead and the other apparently remains captive. A Danish reporter of Afghan origin escaped a kidnap attempt in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Danish Foreign Ministry said.

The unidentified man "was close to being caught but managed to get away and reach a local police station," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ole Neustrup said. The Dane was first reported to be German but that report was false, Khan said.

The series of recent kidnappings prompted the Afghan government to forbid foreigners living in Kabul from leaving the city without police permission.

Police said officials stationed at checkpoints at the city's main gates would stop foreigners from leaving the capital unless they informed officials 24 hours in advance of their travel plans, said Esmatullah Dauladzai, Kabul's provincial police chief.

Elsewhere, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said a soldier was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday by a rocket-propelled grenade. ISAF didn't release the soldier's nationality, but the majority of troops in the east are American.

Britain said one of its soldiers was killed and two others injured when an explosion struck their vehicle in southern Helmand province on Wednesday.

The U.S.-led coalition said 20 suspected Taliban militants were killed Wednesday after a failed ambush on coalition and Afghan troops in Kandahar province. In Helmand province, 50 suspected Taliban died in a 12-hour battle with coalition and Afghan forces that ended early Thursday, the coalition said.

___

Associated Press writers Noor Khan and Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan and Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.