South Koreans back home after release by Taliban (Roundup)

Sep 1, 2007, 23:29 GMT

Released South Korean hostages arrive at the Incheon International Airport, in South Korea, 02 September 2007. Nineteen South Koreans freed from Taliban kidnappers returned to their homeland after a six-week hostage. EPA/SONG KYEONG-SEOK/POOL

Seoul - A group of 19 South Korean Christians who spent six weeks held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan were back home early Sunday.

The Koreans arrived at the airport in Incheon on a flight from Dubai, and were to be examined at a hospital, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The hostages were released in batches on Wednesday and Thursday. They were among a group of 23 Christian aid workers abducted on July 19 while travelling overland. Two hostages were killed by the Taliban when deadlines for their demands were not met, while two women were freed about two weeks ago.

The South Korean government on Saturday again dismissed speculation that it had paid ransom to Taliban rebels to secure the release of the hostages.

'No such thing was given,' foreign minister Song Min Soon said on his return from a trip to Moscow, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.

On Friday, a South Korean government spokesman had already denied any 'secret agreement' with the Taliban when asked whether the radical Islamist group had received a ransom in exchange for the kidnapped aid workers.

Japan's Ashai Shimbun newspaper had reported that the kidnappers had received a ransom of 2 million dollars. The newspaper quoted sources in Afghanistan.

A local mediator was convinced that there would have been no other way of ending the hostage drama, while observers in Afghanistan assumed that Seoul had paid a high ransom.

The South Korean government on Thursday said it had agreed to withdraw its 200 soldiers from Afghanistan - which had already been decided before the kidnappings - by year's end.

It said it had also promised to send no more 'Christian missionaries' into the country.