hankyoreh

On August 1, the 14th day of the hostage crisis, the Korean government concentrated its efforts on bringing an end to the incident by pushing ahead with interviews with the abductees. However, shortly after 4:30 p.m. (KST), the deadline proposed for "the final negotiation," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesman, threatened to kill additional hostages, raising the sense of crisis to new heights.

Two hostages, 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu and 29-year-old Shim Sung-min, both males, have already been shot by their captors.

The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on August 1 that the Taliban had accepted the South Korean government's request to allow its representatives to meet with the hostages. Waheedullah Mujadadi, representative of the Afghan government's negotiation team, said to the AFP that the Afghan government also worked on persuading the Taliban to allow the South Korean delegation to meet the hostages. The Korean delegation working on the issue in Afghanistan is staying at Gazni province, quoting a source familiar with the situation.

But Seoul could not confirm such reports. An official of the Presidential office said on this day, "Some members of the task force have been in Gazni since the beginning of the incident. We haven't yet been informed by the Taliban insurgents that they will permit interviews with the abductees."

The Presidential office has been pushing to meet with the hostages, but has said the Taliban so far has not responded. Earlier than this, on July 31, Taliban spokesman Ahmadi said that a Taliban representative spoke for the first time with Kang Seong-ju, South Korea's ambassador to Afghanistan, in a phone interview.

On August 1, politicians and family members of the abductees urged the U.S. to intervene in the hostage crisis. Family members, including Seo Jeong-bae, father of Myeong-hwa and Gyeong-seok, two sisters being held by the Taliban, met U.S. deputy chief of mission William Stanton at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul and submitted a written appeal along with officials of the Saemmul Church in Bundang, which had arranged the trip to Afghanistan.

In the written appeal, they wrote, "We are surviving with the certain belief that our beloved children will return, but we are suffering from unspeakable pain and anxiety. We are urging the citizens of the world, including the U.S., to support us in order to see a peaceful end to this crisis."

Five representatives of the ruling Uri Party and the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) have decided to visit the U.S. to urge cooperation from Washington. Kim Chung-hwan of the GNP said, "We will leave the country as early as August 2, in accordance with the schedule of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. We plan to also visit either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia."

During a regular briefing, Tom Casey, deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said that the U.S. has maintained for more than two decades a policy that it does not make concessions to terrorists, and that there are no indications showing such a policy will change. His response came after a question as to whether the U.S. might make an exception to its existing policy in relation to the Afghan hostage crisis.