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.
Also See Stories:
Korea crisis envoys seek way forward
South Korean hostage pleads for his life on national TV
Ruling party asks US to avoid Iraq errors on North
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS