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SEOUL - South Korea said Friday it has limited ability to meet Taliban demands for the release of captured fighters in return for 21 hostage aid workers, despite claims by the insurgents of assurances from Seoul.
Presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-Seon said direct communications were under way between government negotiators and the militia holding the South Koreans hostage in Afghanistan.
"The Korean government is not in a position to give a direct answer to the Taliban's demand that its prisoners be swapped for Korean hostages," he said.
"Through the direct contacts, we intend to stress that our capabilities to meet Taliban demands are limited."
The government has not given details of the contacts or confirmed reported plans for a face-to-face meeting between the Taliban and a South Korean delegation in Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, has said his group was ready to meet ambassador Kang Sung-Zu but a venue had still not been decided.
Ahmadi said the Taliban had been assured by South Korean officials that its imprisoned fighters would be released in exchange for the aid workers.
The rebels kidnapped 16 women and seven men on July 19 as they travelled by bus through the insurgency-hit south.
Two have since been shot dead.
"The Korean delegation has assured us they have spoken to the Americans and the Korean hostages will be freed in exchange with Taliban prisoners," Ahmadi said late Thursday.
That could not be confirmed by the Afghan government, which has refused to release fighters for fear of encouraging more kidnapping, and after severe criticism from the United States of a similar deal in March.
A presidential envoy sent to Afghanistan to try to free the hostages, Baek Jong-Chun, returned Friday to Seoul after a stopover in Pakistan.
He told reporters that 200 South Korean troops on a medical and reconstruction mission in Afghanistan would be withdrawn at the end of the year as scheduled.
Pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman, who met Baek in Pakistan, said the envoy had told him Seoul would advance the withdrawal.
South Korea has urged international negotiators to show "flexibility" but has not publicly asked Washington or Kabul to free prisoners.
But several civic groups and politicians say the United States, South Korea's oldest ally, should help it now with a prisoner exchange.
A small group of Christian clerics prayed Friday outside the US embassy for the hostages, urging Washington to accept the Taliban's demands and criticising the US war on terror.
Twelve demonstrators staged a counter-protest. "Do not use hostage situation to incite anti-US sentiment," one placard read.
Families of hostages have also spoken out against attempts to hold the United States responsible for the unresolved crisis, according to Chosun Ilbo newspaper's website.
Cheon expressed hope that a weekend summit between US President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai would offer some clues to a settlement.
"We have expectations that the US and Afghan leaders would have full understanding of the South Korean government's position at their weekend summit," he said.
The spokesman denied a Newsweek magazine report, quoting a senior Taliban commander, that a South Korean envoy was defrauded by a bogus group claiming to be the kidnappers in Afghanistan last month.
"The government has never engaged in talks with a bogus Taliban group. The Newsweek report is groundless," Cheon said. - AFP/ir
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