South Koreans reacted with shock and anger yesterday to the beheading of a hostage in Iraq by militants who killed him after Seoul refused their demand to withdraw its troops and scrap plans to send more.
US soldiers found the decapitated body of Kim Sun-il on Tuesday, five days after he was seized in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, by a group led by militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
PHOTO: AP
The group killed 33-year-old Kim, who had been shown in a video pleading for his life, after Seoul stood firm on keeping 670 South Korean medics and engineers in Iraq and on plans to send 3,000 troops to join US-led forces there.
A sombre President Roh Moo-hyun condemned the killing but said South Korea would send troops rather than bow to terrorism.
"I still feel heartbroken to remember that the deceased was desperately pleading for his life," Roh said, referring to the video showing a terrified Kim crying: "I don't want to die."
Kim's parents had urged their government to do everything to save their son, an Arabic speaker and evangelical Christian, who worked in Iraq for a year as a translator for a South Korean firm supplying goods to the US army.
After news of his death, they sat cross-legged and stunned in their modest backstreet house in the South Korean city of Pusan, as relatives and neighbors sought to console his sister, who was wailing and thrashing around in grief.
Roh has argued the troop decision was a tough but crucial step to support its US ally and that the forces were intended to help rebuild the country.
Since early April, dozens of foreign hostages have been seized in Iraq.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS