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SEOUL : South Korea pressed Tuesday for its own direct talks with the Taliban extremists holding 21 aid workers in Afghanistan, even as the US and Afghan presidents insisted there must be no kind of deal.
At talks outside Washington, US President George W. Bush and his visiting Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed they would not make any concessions to secure the captives' release, the White House said.
However, South Korean officials in Seoul and Kabul say they are hopeful of face-to-face talks with the hardline Taliban, which are demanding the release from jail of captured fighters in return for the hostages' lives.
Separately, Yonhap news agency in Seoul said the Taliban were now proposing that a number of female hostages be exchanged for jailed women supporters of the insurgents.
The reported proposal by spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, in a telephone interview with Yonhap, follows Taliban claims that two Korean women are gravely ill.
"We do not know the exact number of Taliban women imprisoned by the Afghan government, but if (Kabul) lets them go, we will release the same number of female hostages," Ahmadi was quoted as saying.
The original 23 aid workers from a Christian church in Seoul were abducted on July 19 as they travelled in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.
Since then, the Taliban have killed two male captives to try to force the Afghan government into a prisoner release, leaving 16 women and seven men.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said the health problems were not serious.
"The hostages can't be perfectly healthy after nearly 20 days in captivity. In that sense, they are not healthy on the whole. There has been no symptom of any of the hostages being critically ill."
"The government is making various efforts for the release of the hostages," he added.
Song said the outcome of the Bush-Karzai summit at the US president's Camp David retreat had been expected.
Neither president directly addressed the hostage situation at a subsequent news conference, but US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said later they had discussed it and agreed there could be no deal.
"The United States has been working to the extent possible with the Afghan and Korean governments in urging that the hostages be released. There will be no quid pro quo, the Taliban cannot be emboldened by this," he said.
The Taliban had said Monday they were awaiting the outcome of Bush's meeting with Karzai to see whether their demand would be met.
Ahmadi said then that South Korean negotiators had "assured" the militants that President Roh Moo-Hyun had asked Bush for help to free Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
Also Monday, the South Korean embassy in Kabul said it had "high hopes" for face-to-face talks.
Negotiators were able to speak with one of the hostages Saturday, it said, in the first known contact between the captives and their government.
An official said the conversation was brief and would not be disclosed due to safety concerns.
The South Korean delegation was still looking to meeting with the Taliban, pending a decision on a venue and finalisation of the agenda, he added under cover of anonymity, saying: "We have very high hopes."
Meanwhile the husband of one of the kidnapped women posted a tearful video on the Internet site YouTube to his wife, saying he hates himself for sleeping while she suffers in Afghanistan.
Rhyu Haeng-Shik, 36, appealed tearfully for her release in the first of a series of videos made by relatives to press for their release.
"You must be very sick and in hard conditions and I disgust and hate myself for eating and sleeping," he said, according to the caption in English.
The Taliban have also demanded that some of their men be freed in exchange for a 62-year-old German engineer captured near Kabul a day before the South Koreans. He is being held with four Afghans. - AFP/ir
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