Seoul said to have ransomed hostages

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan — South Korea paid the Taliban more than $20 million to release 19 Christian missionaries the Islamist militants were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said yesterday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

But Seoul denies paying a ransom, and there were signs of confusion among the Taliban when a spokesman also said no money had changed hands to secure the Koreans’ freedom.

“We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages,” an official at South Korea’s presidential Blue House said yesterday.

The Taliban leader made his claim as the 19 freed hostages arrived this morning to a subdued and at times uncomfortable welcome at Inchon airport outside Seoul.

“We regret all the trouble we gave to the people of South Korea and the government, and we are grateful for being allowed to return to our families,” ex-hostage Ly Kyung-sik said. Fellow former captives fought back tears, standing with the framed pictures of two fellow hostages killed by the Taliban in the days after their July 19 seizure near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Two other female missionaries from the group had been released earlier.

Kim Man-bok, the head of South Korea’s lead spy agency, denied at the airport ceremony that the government had paid a ransom, but the senior Taliban leader disagreed.

“We got more than $20 million from [the Seoul government],” the commander said on the condition of anonymity. “With it, we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks.”

“The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had,” he said, but did not elaborate.

However, Qari Mohammed Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, later said no ransom was paid, explaining it would discredit the group. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.

The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday, stopping first in Dubai.

If a ransom was paid, some say it will make Afghanistan more dangerous for foreign nationals who already restrict movement for fear of abduction by the Taliban or bandits. Some embassies and aid organizations impose curfews on foreign staff.

“If it has happened, for sure it puts us in a difficult situation, as it will encourage other kidnappers to take foreign hostages,” said one Afghan government official, asking not to be named.

Seoul had already decided before the crisis to withdraw its 200 engineers and medical staff from Afghanistan by the end of 2007. Since the hostages were taken, it has banned its nationals from traveling there.

The hostage drama riveted the nation, but many South Koreans harshly criticized the suburban Seoul Saemmul Church for ignoring numerous government warnings about travel to Afghanistan and making an ill-advised mission to an obviously hostile spot.

The hostages later boarded a bus to a nearby hospital, where many collapsed into the arms of waiting relatives.

Meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan security forces killed about 70 suspected Taliban fighters in raids close to the Pakistan border and throughout the country, the Associated Press reported yesterday, citing authorities.