S.Korean Hostage Faces Death In Iraq

South Korea, however, said it is resolved to send more troops to Iraq as planned in August despite heart-breaking pleas from Kim Sun-I1, who works for Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary.

Kim is being held along with other 10 foreigners, including a European journalist, the head of a South Korean company operating in occupied Iraq said Monday, June 21.

"Mr. Kim (Sun-Il) was abducted along with several KBR employees from an unidentified country," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted the head of a South Korean company operating in Iraq, Kim Choon-Ho, as telling South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed that the 33-year-old man was abducted by an unknown group in Iraq Thursday, June 17.

Kim was seen pleading for his life in a video tape screened on Al-Jazeera television Sunday and repeatedly broadcast on South Korean TV networks.

"I don’t want to die…My life is very important. Get out of Iraq," an apparently panicking Kim said on the tape.

Kim’s mother, from the port city of Busan, urged the government to reconsider the troop dispatch and begged the hostage-takers to free her son.

"He is my only son. Please bring him back to us," said Shin Young-Ja on CBS radio.

"The government must save Sun-Il even if it means reconsidering the troop dispatch."

Reluctance

Seoul, however, gave the cold shoulder to the pleas of the two, vowing to send more troops to the occupied country in August.

"There is no change to the spirit of the dispatch and our position that the deployment is for supporting reconstruction and rehabilitation," Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-Jin told a press conference.

"The Kim Sun-Il case has nothing to do with our planned dispatch. We will do our best to secure his release."

South Korea announced Friday, June 18, that it would start sending 3,000 troops to Iraq from August, the third largest contingent in the US-led occupation after the US and Britain.

Under deployment orders, the troops, mainly non-combatants, are to engage in relief work only and steer clear of conflict.

An opinion poll by the Hankook daily last week showed 57.5 percent of respondents were opposed to the dispatch, while 40 percent were in favor of it.

One of the hostage-takers was shown on the tape delivering the ultimatum in Arabic.

"Do not send any more troops to Iraq or we will send you the head of this Korean and it will be followed, God willing, by the heads of your soldiers," said the man, flanked by two other hostage takers, all wearing scarves to hide their faces.

"We give you 24 hours starting from Sunday June 20, 2004" to agree to the demand, he said.

The men said they belonged to a previously unknown group called Tawhid wa Al-Jihad.

Kidnapping foreigners has become more common in Iraq with the approach of the June 30 deadline for the US-led occupation to hand over power to an Iraqi interim government.

Many hostages have been released, but at least two, including American Nicholas Berg, have been killed by their kidnappers.