Taliban Negotiate Over Korean Hostages

South Korean protesters hold candles during a rally demanding the safe return of South Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of South Korean troops from that country in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 25, 2007. A purported Taliban spokesman said Wednesday that negotiations for the lives of 23 South Korean hostages have stalled and that the militants planned to kill "a few" of the captives immediately. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (Lee Jin-man - AP)

South Korean presidential spokesman Chun Ho-sun said the 22 South Koreans still believed held were not suffering health problems. He said South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun had spoken with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the situation.

But one of the hostages, who identified herself as Yo Syun Ju, told an Afghan journalist by telephone that all the hostages were sick, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. She pleaded for help to secure their release.

"Tell them to do something to get us released," she said in an interview in the presence of the Taliban militants holding her captive.

Yo, who said she was from Seoul, described her situation as "dangerous."

"Day by day it is getting very difficult," she said in the interview obtained by the BBC. "We are all sick and we have a lot of problems."

Local tribal elders and religious clerics who have respect among the people of Qarabagh district, where the Taliban kidnapped the South Koreans, have been conducting negotiations with the captors for several days.

The negotiations have been held over the telephone, said Ghazni police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai.

"We will not use force against the militants to free the hostages," Ahmadzai said. "The best way in this case is dialogue."

Waheedullah Mujadidi, who heads the delegation, complained that the Taliban were not being consistent during the negotiations.

The Taliban at one point demanded that 23 jailed militants be freed in exchange for the Koreans. It is not clear how many militants the Taliban want freed or which ones.

Afghanistan's government brokered a much-criticized prisoner swap in March in which five captive Taliban fighters were freed for the release of Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo. The militants killed Mastrogiacomo's translator and driver.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the hard-line Islamist Taliban, said they had been contacted by Afghanistan's deputy interior minister, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Munir Mangal, who said the government would make a decision regarding the militants' demands by noon Friday.