Pieman
Army.ca Veteran
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Militants threaten to behead South Korean hostage
They set 24-hour deadline for Seoul to pull soldiers from Iraq
Sunday, June 20, 2004 Posted: 2310 GMT (0710 HKT)
On the videotape the man cried in English, "Please get out of here. I don't want to die. ... Your life is important, but my life is important."
The South Korean Foreign Ministry in Seoul confirmed that the man shown in the videotape is Kim Sun-il, 33, who works for a trading company. It was not known when or how he was taken hostage.
The Foreign Ministry planned an emergency meeting Monday morning to discuss Seoul's reaction to the development and steps to take toward Kim's release.
An official with the South Korean Embassy in Washington said South Korea has about 600 troops in the country and plans to send another 3,000.
The deployment will make South Korea the third-largest contributor to coalition forces, after the United States and Britain. (Full story)
The video showed Kim seated in front of three men whose faces are covered with scarves.
Two of the men held rifles; the third delivered an ultimatum to South Korea's government.
"We ask the government of South Korea and the people of Korea to pull their forces out of Iraq and not to send additional forces," the man said.
"Otherwise, we will send this hostage's head back to them and, God willing, we will kill more of your troops in Iraq. And you have 24 hours, starting tonight."
In Baghdad, South Korea's ambassador to Iraq said he was aware of the tape and had no comment.
Al-Jazeera's editor in chief, Ahmed al-Sheikh, said the tape was left Sunday at the network's office in Baghdad and that he verified it was authentic before broadcasting segments of it. He did not broadcast the entire tape because some of it was repetitious, he said.
(CNN) -- The Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape Sunday night of a man identified as a
South Korean hostage whose captors threatened to behead him unless his government quits the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/20/iraq.hostage/index.html
They set 24-hour deadline for Seoul to pull soldiers from Iraq
Sunday, June 20, 2004 Posted: 2310 GMT (0710 HKT)
On the videotape the man cried in English, "Please get out of here. I don't want to die. ... Your life is important, but my life is important."
The South Korean Foreign Ministry in Seoul confirmed that the man shown in the videotape is Kim Sun-il, 33, who works for a trading company. It was not known when or how he was taken hostage.
The Foreign Ministry planned an emergency meeting Monday morning to discuss Seoul's reaction to the development and steps to take toward Kim's release.
An official with the South Korean Embassy in Washington said South Korea has about 600 troops in the country and plans to send another 3,000.
The deployment will make South Korea the third-largest contributor to coalition forces, after the United States and Britain. (Full story)
The video showed Kim seated in front of three men whose faces are covered with scarves.
Two of the men held rifles; the third delivered an ultimatum to South Korea's government.
"We ask the government of South Korea and the people of Korea to pull their forces out of Iraq and not to send additional forces," the man said.
"Otherwise, we will send this hostage's head back to them and, God willing, we will kill more of your troops in Iraq. And you have 24 hours, starting tonight."
In Baghdad, South Korea's ambassador to Iraq said he was aware of the tape and had no comment.
Al-Jazeera's editor in chief, Ahmed al-Sheikh, said the tape was left Sunday at the network's office in Baghdad and that he verified it was authentic before broadcasting segments of it. He did not broadcast the entire tape because some of it was repetitious, he said.
(CNN) -- The Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape Sunday night of a man identified as a
South Korean hostage whose captors threatened to behead him unless his government quits the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/20/iraq.hostage/index.html