The 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan began on July 19, 2007, when 23 South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

n missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 were captured and held hostage

Hostage

A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...

 by members of the Taliban while passing through Ghazni Province

Ghazni Province

Ghazni is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Babur records in his Babur-Nama that Ghazni is also known as Zabulistan It is in the east of the country. Its capital is Ghazni City...

 of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. Two male hostages were executed before the deal was reached between the Taliban and the South Korean government. The group, composed of sixteen women and seven men, was captured while traveling from Kandahar

Kandahar

Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...

 to Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

 by bus on a mission sponsored by the Saemmul Presbyterian Church. The crisis began when two local men, who the driver had allowed to board, started shooting to bring the bus to a halt. Over the next month, the hostages were kept in cellars and farmhouses and regularly moved in groups of three to four.

Of the 23 hostages captured, two men, Bae Hyeong-gyu, a 42-year-old South Korean pastor

Pastor

The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

 of Saemmul Church, and Shim Seong-min, a 29-year-old South Korean man, were executed on July 25 and July 30, respectively. Later, with negotiations making progress, two women, Kim Gyeong-ja and Kim Ji-na, were released on August 13 and the remaining 19 hostages on August 29 and August 30.

The release of the hostages was secured with a South Korean promise to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2007. Although the South Korean government offered no statement, a Taliban spokesman claimed that the militant group also received some US$20 million in exchange for the safety of the captured missionaries.

Negotiations

As South Korea was already scheduled to withdraw its 200 troops by the end of the year, the Taliban's initial demand was only that they hold to this plan, but later also sought the release of 23 Taliban militants from prison. South Korean representatives in Washington DC requested a meeting with Afghanistan Kidnap / Ransom experts from SCG International Risk

SCG International Risk

SCG International was founded in 1996 to provide government and private sectors with domestic and international security, logistics and training services.-History:...

 on August 1. SCG then began advising the South Koreans on ways to resolve the crisis.

The Taliban issued and extended several deadlines for the release of the prisoners, after which they threatened to begin killing the hostages. Freedom for the militants was ruled out when it was apparent the Korean negotiators could not secure the release of Afghan prisoners, as Afghan president Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...

 had previously faced criticism for freeing five rebel prisoners in exchange for an Italian hostage.

Face-to-face meetings between the Taliban and South Korea began on August 10, resulting in the release of two female hostages, Kim Ji-na and Kim Gyeong-ja, on August 13. However, on August 18, a spokesman said that the talks had failed and the fates of the hostages were being considered.

Release

The freedom of the remaining nineteen hostages (fourteen women and five men) was secured on August 28 with the participation of Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 as a neutral Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 country. They were eventually released on August 29 and August 30.

After the release, a Taliban official announced that South Korea had paid the Taliban more than US$20 million in ransom

Ransom

Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...

 for the lives of the hostages. However, South Korea stated that they have made a promise with the Taliban that they would not make any statements about the ransom.

Response

Public gatherings were held in Korea during the capture to pray for the safety of the hostages.
Muslims residing in Korea

Islam in Korea

In South Korea, the Muslim population has been steadily increasing since the introduction of the Islamic faith shortly after the Korean War. The Muslim community is centered around Seoul, where the first large 20th-century mosque was built in 1976 using the funds of the Malaysian Islamic Mission...

 also expressed their grief regarding the incident and avow that the acts of the Taliban are against the principles of Islam. Many Koreans nevertheless held numerous protests and demonstrations outside the Seoul Central Mosque

Seoul Central Mosque

The Seoul Central Mosque opened in 1976 in Itaewon, Seoul. It is located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu. It holds lectures in English, Arabic, and Korean. Friday prayers regularly attract up to 800 worshipers at 1pm, the majority of them being of Arab, Indian, Pakistani or Turkish descent...

.
On the other hand, many Koreans were critical of the hostages, as the hostages were conducting Christian missionary service in Islamic Afghanistan despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's repeated warnings that Taliban has plans to kidnap Koreans in order to free imprisoned militants. Protestant Churches in general also come under intense criticism in South Korean society.

Among these criticising the deal from the government as a dangerous precedent was the bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Taejon and chairman of Caritas

Caritas (charity)

Caritas Internationalis is a confederate of 164 Roman Catholic relief, development and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide....

 Corea Lazarus You Heung-sik.

The execution of the two hostages also provoked outrage in much of the rest of the world.

Timeline

• On July 19, 2007, a number of South Korean citizens are reported to have been captured by the Taliban from a public bus traveling in the Ghazni
  Ghazni
  For the Province of Ghazni see Ghazni ProvinceGhazni is a city in central-east Afghanistan with a population of about 141,000 people...
  
   Province, from Kandahar
  Kandahar
  Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
  
   to Kabul
  Kabul
  Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
  
  , and held hostage.

• On July 20 the Taliban demanded that all South Korean forces be withdrawn from Afghanistan within 24 hours and also that Afghan president Hamid Karzai
  Hamid Karzai
  Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
  
   release all Taliban inmates.

• On July 21 South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun
  Roh Moo-hyun
  Roh Moo-hyun GOM GCB was the 16th President of South Korea .Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists in South Korea. His electoral career later expanded to a focus on overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics, culminating in his...
  
   gave a national televised speech informing the public of the kidnappings. The Taliban reduced its demand to twenty-three Taliban prisoners in exchange for the lives of the hostages.

• On July 24 the Taliban demanded a sum of $100,000 in exchange for the right to contact the hostages via phone. The South Korean government refuses.

• On July 25 one of the South Korean hostages was executed. South Korea's foreign ministry identified the victim as 42-year-old South Korean pastor Bae Hyeong-gyu, who was the leader of the group.

• On July 29 a final deadline was set by the Taliban for July 30, 0730 GMT.

• On July 30 the Taliban extended the deadline for the seventh time by 4 hours to 1130 GMT to give Afghan officials more time to negotiate. A Taliban spokesperson later announced another male hostage had been killed because the government did not cede to the group's demands. This was later confirmed when the body of 29-year-old Shim Seong-min was found in the village of Arzoo (50 miles from where the kidnapping took place).

• On July 31 the deadline was extended to August 1, 0730 GMT.

• On August 1 South Korean officials meet with SCG International Risk
  SCG International Risk
  SCG International was founded in 1996 to provide government and private sectors with domestic and international security, logistics and training services.-History:...
  
   Kidnap / Ransom consultants at the South Korean Embassy in Washington DC.

• On August 1, 1200 GMT, another deadline passed, while the local governor said the Taliban militants have agreed to a face-to-face meeting requested by South Korea's ambassador". North Korea
  North Korea
  The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
  
   also called for the release of the hostages.

• On August 2, 1200 GMT, Korean hostage negotiators agreed to direct talks with Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan.

• On August 10, 1600 GMT, the Taliban began the first round of face-to-face talks with a South Korean team concerning the hostages. The talks were held in an area under the control of the Afghan government in Ghazni province. Two top Taliban leaders and four South Korean officials met at the office of the Afghan Red Crescent in Ghazni, along with four members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC
  International Committee of the Red Cross
  The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
  
  ).

• On August 13, two female hostages were released as a goodwill gesture. The Taliban had originally decided to free Lee Ji-yeong, but she allowed another hostage to take her place.

• On August 18, the Taliban announced that the face-to-face talks with the South Koreans had failed and that they were considering the fate of the remaining hostages.

• On August 28, a breakthrough in the negotiations was announced with the Taliban agreeing to release the remaining hostages on the condition that South Korea withdraw its two-hundred non-combat troops within the year and suspend missionary work in Afghanistan. Indonesia was a neutral Muslim party in these negotiations.

• On August 29, a total of twelve hostages were released.

• On August 30, the remaining seven hostages were released, bringing an end to the crisis.

• On September 1, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun called Afghan President Hamid Karzai
  Hamid Karzai
  Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
  
   and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono AC , is an Indonesian politician and retired Army general officer who has been President of Indonesia since 2004....
  
   to thank them for their help in getting the hostages released. Karzai praised the negotiation of the South Korea government.

• In December 2009, the South Korean defence ministry announced the army would return to Afghanistan with 350 troops in 2010 to protect South Korean civilian engineers working on reconstruction. These troops would not engage in any fighting except to protect the aid team and be backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and an unmanned reconnaissance drone to protect the 100 civilian engineers and 40 police. The South Korean contingent would be based in Parwan province, just north of Kabul for 30 months from 1 July 2010.

List of hostages

Romanized name	Name in Hangul Hangul Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...	Name in Hanja Hanja Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...	Gender	Birth year	Status
Bae Hyeong-gyu		裵亨圭	Male	1965	killed on July 25, 2007
Shim Seong-min		沈聖珉	Male	1978	killed on July 30, 2007
Kim Gyeong-ja	김경자	金慶子	Female	1970	released on August 13, 2007
Kim Ji-na	김지나	金智娜	Female	1975	released on August 13, 2007
Ryu Gyeong-shik	류경식	柳慶植	Male	1952	released on August 29, 2007
Ko Sei-hoon	고세훈	高世勳	Male	1980	released on August 29, 2007
Lyu Jeong-hwa	유정화	柳貞和	Female	1968	released on August 29, 2007
Lee Seon-yeong	이선영	李善英	Female	1970	released on August 29, 2007
Lee Ji-yeong	이지영	李智英	Female	1970	released on August 29, 2007 (offered to be freed August 13)
Han Ji-yeong	한지영	韓智英	Female	1973	released on August 29, 2007
Lee Jeong-ran	이정란	李貞蘭	Female	1974	released on August 29, 2007
Lim Hyeon-ju	임현주	林賢珠	Female	1975	released on August 29, 2007
Cha Hye-jin	차혜진	車惠珍	Female	1976	released on August 29, 2007
An Hye-jin	안혜진	安惠珍	Female	1976	released on August 29, 2007
Seo Myeong-hwa	서명화	徐明和	Female	1978	released on August 29, 2007
Lee Ju-yeon	이주연	李週妍	Female	1980	released on August 29, 2007
Je Chang-hee	제창희	諸昌熙	Male	1969	released on August 30, 2007
Song Byeong-woo	송병우	宋炳宇	Male	1974	released on August 30, 2007
Seo Gyeong-seok	서경석	徐京石	Male	1980	released on August 30, 2007
Kim Yoon-yeong	김윤영	金允英	Female	1972	released on August 30, 2007
Pak Hye-yeong	박혜영	朴惠英	Female	1972	released on August 30, 2007
Lee Seong-eun	이성은	李成恩	Female	1983	released on August 30, 2007
Lee Yeong-gyeong	이영경	李英慶	Female	1985	released on August 30, 2007