hankyoreh

It has been 19 days since a group of Koreans were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and today the United States and Afghanistan, which hold the key to resolving the situation, are holding a summit in Washington, D.C. The United States is labeling the talks as “private” and “strategic,” but the summit is particularly of note for Koreans because it could prove to be a significant turning point in the resolution of the hostage issue.

Foreign media reports say that there are major differences between the United States and Afghanistan on what to do about the Taliban. The Washington Post reports that Afghans who are fatigued enough as it is from years of war, and are angry at the increasing number of civilians killed in NATO air attacks, support a diplomatic solution, while the United States rejects that and wants firm action taken. The Post reports that the United States is particularly opposed to a negotiated solution when there are hostages involved, and quotes a Bush Administration spokesperson as saying that pressure should be applied to the Taliban, including the possible use of force, to have the Korean hostages released.

Our government has no cards that it can play in direct talks with the Taliban if the United States insists on its unbending stance, because, while at first they called for the withdrawal of Korean troops and the release of Taliban prisoners, they have now simplified their demands down to an exchange of hostages for Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and others who met with the delegation from Korea’s National Assembly that went to the United States over the weekend, spoke of the need for creative diplomacy. However, the entity behind that creative diplomacy should be the governments of the United States and Afghanistan, as they hold the key to resolving the situation, not Korea.

Granted, as Burns said, it is important that all parties involved speak with the same voice. But for Korea to speak with the same voice as the United States and Afghanistan, the other two countries need to make Korea believe they feel for the situation our hostages find themselves in and are actively working for a solution. So far, however, the Korean people have not been given much reason to have faith in that possibility, given what they have heard since the crisis began. How serious it would have to be for members of the families of the abducted to say they are going to go all the way to the United States to make their appeals directly.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karazi need to sense how it is not just the hostages and their families, but the whole of the Korean people, who experience desperation and rage at feeling like they are being held hostage themselves, stuck as we are between Afghanistan, the Taliban and the United States. We hope to see something positive and proactive come from the talks between those two leaders, something that will save the lives of the remaining hostages.