South Korea said yesterday it will go ahead with its plan to send troops to Iraq despite the abduction of a South Korean man and the televised broadcast of his desperate pleas to stay alive.
The kidnapping tested South Korea's resolve just days after the US ally announced it will dispatch 3,000 troops to assist in reconstruction efforts in northern Iraq. Once the deployment is complete, South Korea will be the largest coalition partner after the US and Britain.
On Sunday, the Arab satellite TV network al Jazeera aired a videotape purportedly from al-Qaeda militants showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life and pleading with his government to withdraw troops from Iraq.
The kidnappers, who identified themselves as belonging to a group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, gave South Korea 24 hours to meet its demand or "we will send you the head of this Korean."
In Seoul, hundreds of protesters attended a candlelight vigil last night to demand the release of Kim Sun-il and a reversal to the troop dispatch. Some held placards reading "Sending the troops kills, kills, kills."
The group that kidnapped Kim was holding as many as 10 foreigners, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing Kim's employer in Iraq. The captives included a European journalist and "third country" employees for the US-based contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root who were abducted along with Kim, Yonhap said.
Kim Chun-ho, head of South Korea's Gana General Trading Co., said some of the abductees were seen by an Iraqi go-between who visited the kidnappers to try to negotiate the South Korean's release.
Officials of South Korea's National Security Council and the ministries of foreign affairs and defense hastily met after news broke of the abduction.
"There is no change in the government's spirit and position that it will send troops to Iraq to help establish peace and rebuild Iraq," Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin said at a news conference.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the incident was "deeply unfortunate and regrettable" and instructed his government to do all it could to win the release of the hostage, Roh's office said.
South Korea sent a six-member delegation to Jordan to assist in negotiations to win Kim's release. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon discussed the matter in a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, South Korean officials said.
Kim, 33, was abducted on June 17 while making a delivery in the city of Fallujah, Choi said.
DOCTORS STRIKE
Meanwhile, South Korean doctors posted in southern Iraq yesterday refused to treat Iraqi patients in protest at the death threat facing their compatriot.
The 35 doctors have for the past year been working out of a former air force base some 20km west of Nasiriyah.
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