AFGHANISTAN:Two South Korean women held hostage by the Taliban for more than three weeks in Afghanistan have been freed and handed over to Korean officials in relatively good health.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the pair were driven yesterday to the city of Ghazni and handed over to South Korean diplomats there. South Korea's foreign ministry confirmed two women had been freed.
"Two of the hostages have been freed and handed over to us safely," said a ministry spokesman in a televised briefing.
The pair are the first hostages to be released since Taliban kidnappers seized the group of 23 Korean church volunteers from a bus in Ghazni province on the main road south from the capital Kabul last month.
Two male hostages have been killed and threats to kill the rest were made if a similar number of Taliban prisoners were not freed in exchange.
The two women arrived in the village of Arzoo, near the city of Ghazni, in a saloon car driven by two tribal elders and got into an ICRC vehicle.
"They were able to walk and appeared to be well, but they were very emotional and were crying," a witness said. The governor of Ghazni said the two were "sick, but not bad". A representative of the hostages' families, Cha Sung-min, said in Seoul: "I was told by our government that the two are in relatively good condition."
South Korea's foreign ministry identified the released hostages as Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na.
The Taliban is still holding 19 Korean hostages, 16 of them women. Kim Ji-na's brother, Ji-ung, said: "Our hearts are heavy because there are still those who remain. We will be here until we can all go home with joy."
The Christian group has been criticised for going to Afghanistan against government advice. "We are so sorry to the government and to the [ South Korean] people for causing so many worries," Kim Kyung-ja's brother, Kyung-shik, said.
The Afghan government has refused to give in to Taliban demands to free prisoners, saying that would just encourage more kidnapping. A Taliban spokesman said the decision to free the pair had been made by the Taliban leadership council, headed by Mullah Mohammad Omar, as a gesture of goodwill.