Kim Sun-il recently told his mother not to worry about his safety. Now, Iraqi militants have issued a televised threat to behead the South Korean businessman.
Yesterday his rasping, desperate cry of "I don't want to die" was being broadcast repeatedly on South Korean television stations, sending a chill through many people who already had reservations about the government's plan to send troops to Iraq.
The militants, in their televised demand, said they wanted Seoul to reverse the decision. The government said the deployment would go ahead as planned in August.
The seventh of eight children, Kim had been working in Iraq as an interpreter for the past year, Yonhap news agency said. As a Christian, he mixed that work with evangelizing, it said.
Kim was born in September 1970 and graduated with a degree in Arabic from South Korea's top language school, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, in February last year. A university official said Kim had transferred there from a theology college in the southern port city of Pusan three years earlier. He also studied English, Yonhap said.
"Don't worry about me, mum. I feel comfortable," Kim told his mother when she asked about the danger he faced in Iraq during their last telephone conversation in April.
Kim entered Iraq on June 15 last year, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry, which has set up a task force to seek his release.
He was planning to return to his hometown of Pusan in July to celebrate his father's 70th birthday.
"They should handle this swiftly," his father, Kim Jong-kyu, said on South Korea's MBC television. "Save his life first."
Kim Sun-il works for Gana General Trading, a company with 12 employees in Iraq to supply goods to the US military commissary. He was kidnapped in Falluja on June 17 and his company's president initially sought to negotiate his release without involving the South Korean government, the ministry said.
Kim's kidnapping is not the first involving South Koreans in Iraq.
Seven South Koreans, all evangelical church pastors, were seized by armed men in April but later freed unharmed. They were among a large number of foreigners kidnapped and later freed by gunmen demanding US allies withdraw their troops from Iraq.
South Korea plans to send 3,000 troops to Arbil in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. The military say about half are combat troops trained to protect the rest as they help rebuild Iraq, distribute aid and train security forces.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS