Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Look at this article, photos of these south korean struck at taliban.
Just today, another korean was reported KILLED,..bullet-riddled body.
How cruel can these people get to??!!
[SEOUL] South Korea -
South Korea confirmed Tuesday that a 29-year-old man was the second South Korean hostage killed in Afghanistan, and said further deaths would not go unanswered in the standoff where 21 people remained captives of the Taliban.
The body of Shim Sung-min, a former information technology worker who was a volunteer with a South Korean church group on an aid mission to Afghanistan, was found Tuesday morning by Afghan authorities.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong confirmed his identity in a briefing to reporters.
"The government expresses deep condolences to his family," Cho said.
"We cannot contain our anger at this merciless killing and strongly condemn this."
"If there is an act claiming the lives of our people again, the government won't sit idly by and watch," presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said.
"We will ensure they take responsibility for the lives of our people."
"We pray for the souls of the killed and offer deep words of comfort from our heart," Cheon said.
The first hostage - The church group's leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was shot dead last week in unclear circumstances.
The church group's leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was shot dead last week in unclear circumstances.
Two deadlines given by the captors for the release of Taliban prisoners passed Monday without any action, before the insurgents said late Monday that a second hostage had been shot.
The Taliban have threatened to kill all the hostages if their demands are not met.
Cheon, the presidential spokesman, said Seoul was constrained in its ability to meet the Taliban demand because it had limited influence on the Afghan government.
South Korea "strongly condemns the kidnapping organization seizing innocent civilians and claiming their lives while making a demand that we cannot address," he said.
"The kidnapped people are not prisoners or criminals.
They are civilians who went there for humanitarian volunteer work," Cheon said. "It can never be justified to kidnap innocent civilians and kill them."
The slain hostage Shim had majored in engineering at college and recently left his job to prepare for graduate school, according to local media reports.
Shim, whose aunt is visually impaired, had always been concerned about the difficulties faced by the handicapped and worked as a volunteer teacher for handicapped children at his church, family members said.
"Last year, he visited the Philippines for five days as a volunteer worker.
He also served in the military as an army officer."
Shim majored in engineering at college and recently left his job to prepare for graduate school, according to local media reports.
Shim, whose aunt is visually impaired, had always been concerned about the difficulties faced by the handicapped and worked as a volunteer teacher with handicapped children at his church, family members said.
Last year, he visited the Philippines for five days as a volunteer worker.
Shim had also previously served as an army officer.
"My son Sung-min was more chivalrous and warmhearted than (most) other young people," his father Shim Jin-pyo, 62, told reporters earlier Tuesday.
"He considered it a principle of his life to help needy neighbors and the weak. ...
He has never been defiant or resistant.
He has always been positive and friendly."
Shim Jin-pyo said his wife collapsed when the family heard their son could be the Taliban's latest victim.
