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Taliban say Seoul paid ransom

South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than US$20 million to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said yesterday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea. Seoul denies paying a ransom. Critics say negotiating with the Taliban sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings -- which the Taliban have vowed to carry out.

"We got more than US$20 million from them [the Seoul government]," the commander said on condition of anonymity. "With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks."

"The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had," he said.

The commander is on the 10-man leadership council of the Islamist Taliban movement.

"We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," an official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said yesterday in response to the Taliban claim.

"The two conditions for the release are that we pull out our troops and stop Korean missionary work in Afghanistan by the end of the year," said the official, who declined to be identified.

Meanwhile, anxious family members prepared to reunite with their traumatized loved ones.

"I'm very much concerned because she looked like she lost a lot of weight," Cha Seong-min said of his sister, Hye-jin, one of the released hostages.

Suh, 29, and another former hostage, 55-year-old Yoo Kyung-sik, held a news conference with South Korean media in their hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul. They recounted details of the group's ordeal.

Suh showed reporters a pair of white trousers she wore during captivity. On the inside of the pants, she had written about their movements, meal times and other details -- including Korean food she had longed for.

Public criticism of the hostages has been intense in South Korea, where many blame them for bringing about their hardship because they went to Afghanistan despite government warnings that the war-torn country was unsafe.

Critics also say their trip sullied the country's reputation by forcing the government to negotiate with the Taliban -- a move widely seen in South Korea as a violation of international principles regarding contact with terrorists.

Cha said he hopes to prevent the hostages from seeing the harsh messages that have been posted on Internet bulletin boards, which could worsen their trauma.
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