Female Korean captive interviewed by Reuters identified as English interpreter

Posted on : 2007-07-29 21:49 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

A South Korean female captive in Afghanistan, who pleaded for help in a telephone interview with Reuters released on Saturday, has been identified as Yu Jeong-hwa who volunteered as an English interpreter for Korean aid workers, her family said Sunday.

The 39-year-old Yu, one of the remaining 22 Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan for the last 10 days by the Taliban, spoke to Reuters on the mobile phone of a Taliban fighter, asking the United Nations and the U.S. and Korean governments to help release them.

According to her family, Yu was kidnapped during her second trip to Afghanistan, where she worked as an English interpreter for Korean aid workers as well as a teacher for Afghan children.

"Yu went to Afghanistan in June after telling apprehensive relatives that she had safely traveled to Afghanistan last year and wanted to learn a lot more about the country," one of her maternal aunts, identified only by her surname Kwak, said in a comment to the local media.

"She went there to help the Afghan people. We all wish for her safe return home," Kwak said.

Yu had worked as an English-language instructor at a private institution in Seoul before heading to Afghanistan.

Yu's mother told Yonhap News that she has particular affection towards underprivileged children.

"Yu is the eldest of three daughters in our family. Her love of children has been extraordinary. After her first trip to Afghanistan, she said she was distressed by Afghan children in pain," she said.

Yu is the second Korean hostage to be interviewed by Western media after Im Hyun-ju, a former nurse who talked to U.S. broadcaster CBS on Wednesday, appealing for international help for the release of the hostages.

Analysts speculate the Taliban are using the interviews as a deliberate psychological tactic to put further pressure on the South Korean government prior to a South Korean presidential envoy's meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, possibly slated for Sunday.
SEOUL, July 29 (Yonhap News)

Most viewed articles