“Taliban Might Change Its Demands”

While face-to-face negotiations between the South Korean government and the Taliban, an Afghan armed organization, concerning the release of the 21 South Korean hostages held by the latter are known to be imminent, the two sides supposedly still have not reached an agreement on August 3 on the location of the talks and the demands to be discussed.

Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Patan told the AP the same day that South Korean side suggested the other should hold the negotiations at the office of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, which is under the jurisdiction of the multinational forces, but that the Taliban wants to choose a place within the regions it dominates.

The AFP expects face-to-face negotiations between the South Korean government delegation and the Taliban to take place as early as August 3 late at night. Other foreign reports reported that talks have already begun via phone prior to the face to face negotiations. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported the same day that, “Both sides started direct negotiations through the phone.”

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told the DPA that, “The Taliban talked with the South Korean ambassador to Afghanistan Kang Seong-ju on the phone for the first time.” To the AFP, he said, “The South Korean government confirmed that it asked the U.S. to win the release of South Korean hostages by setting Taliban prisoners free.”

Yonhap News reported quoting Ahmadi that the Taliban is willing to free two female hostages in ill physical condition in exchange for two prisoners first. It added, however, that Afghan deputy interior minister Munir Mangal said, “No prisoners will be freed in exchange because it is against the law of Afghanistan.”

Aminulah Khan (pseudonym), a local Dong-A Ilbo correspondent, said that he had a phone talk with Mullah Sabir, a senior Taliban commander in Ghazni province, in which the latter said, “Though conditions have stayed the same regarding a swap of Taliban prisoners and the hostages, ‘a number of conditions’ can be altered.” But nothing was explained about the demands that can possibly be changed, added Khan.

Regarding the report by the weekly magazine Newsweek that the South Korean government contacted “fake Taliban” representatives and handed over ransom money for the hostages, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Cheon Ho-seon in a briefing on August 3 said it was not true.

Concerning the AFP report that South Korean presidential national security adviser Baek Jong-cheon visited Pakistan and elucidated Korea’s willingness to withdraw Korean forces in Afghanistan earlier, the presidential spokesman said, “No change has been made to the original plan that the forces will be withdrawn within the year. I think the opposite side interpreted what Baek said wrongly or subjectively.”

Meanwhile, Nicholas Burns, U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs, met with the five South Korean assembly representatives in Washington on August 2 and promised that he would “make every possible effort to secure the safety of the hostages,” said Kim Hyeong-oh, the Grand National Party’s leader.

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