hankyoreh

the second Korean hostage to be killed by Taliban insurgents

The Taliban insurgents have killed a second South Korean hostage, once again demonstrating their position and leaving South Korea with a dwindling stack of cards on the table.

If the Afghan government does not accept the insurgents’ prisoners-for-hostages swap, they will not release the remaining South Koreans held hostage in the nation. The Afghan government should make a determination in connection with the release of the abductees. It also is clear that the U.S. administration will have a decisive influence over this matter. Because of this, the attention of the international community has been focused on the United States as the situation has continued to deteriorate.

Shortly before the news about the killing of the second hostage came out, the U.S. State Department’s deputy spokesman Tom Casey repeatedly expressed his nation’s position that it supports the efforts of the South Korean government. This kind of comment is completely in line with the United States’ principle position that it will not negotiate with kidnappers or terrorist forces. The United States has a great deal of experience with kidnappings, of foreigners as well as its own citizens, in the Afghan and Iraqi wars, but it worries that conceding to the Taliban’s demands will result in more such tragic accidents. Washington seems to make a great effort to distant itself from the recent crisis.

President Hamid Karzai’s government in Afghanistan is a creation of the Bush administration. The Afghan government depends on the U.S. administration for its establishment and stabilization. The U.S. Army has dispatched approximately 20,000 soldiers who are stationed among U.S.-led multinational forces in Afghanistan, which is in a state of civil war. These forces are protecting the Afghan government from Taliban insurgents. Besides, without U.S. economic assistance, Afghanistan could not survive. For these reasons, experts predict that the United States will exercise significant influence over the Afghan government’s decision about whether or not to free the insurgents’ prisoners.

Even if the United States cannot avoid considering the opinion of the international community, it is not easy for the United States, which has pressured other nations not to make concessions to kidnappers, whenever kidnappings of its own citizens happen, to shift its position.

The Taliban militants, in particular, are now detaining German hostages. They are also demanding money and the release of Taliban detainees in exchange for the hostages’ release. The German government has taken the hard-line position that it will not accept the Taliban’s demand.

Under these conditions, it will not be easy for Washington to close its eyes to the release of insurgent prisoners in consideration of the South Korean hostages. Professor Seo Dong-man at Sangji University, however, pointed out that South Korea’s situation is different from that of Germany, which also dispatched troops to Afghanistan. Whereas Germany might think that it would risk accidents, such as kidnapping, in sending its combat troops into the region, South Korea is different in that it has sent non-combatants to do construction and offer medical help, Seo stressed.

Seoul does not want public attention to be focused on the attitude of the United States. Whenever the United States’ lukewarm attitude has been an issue, South Korea just kept saying that the U.S. has sufficiently cooperated. The South Korean position could be read as an attempt to avoid being trapped in the Taliban’s plan to involve the United States. And the reality is that there is almost nothing which the Korean government can use to move the United States from its current position. The withdrawal of South Korean troops from Iraq has been cited as an influential trump card against the United States. However, it is difficult to force the United States in a situation in which the government desperately needs U.S. cooperation in terms of the inter-Korean relations, security and trade.

Despite the circumstances, if the crisis worsens, the outcry against the United States and U.S.-South Korea relations will grow. South Korea’s presidential spokesperson Chun Ho-sun said on July 31, “It is clear that we need U.S. cooperation. The United States has certainly cooperated in this matter, but there have been no visible results.”

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