Kidnapped South Koreans return from Nigeria

SEOUL, June 11 (Reuters) Five South Korean workers who had been taken hostage by militants in Nigeria returned to Seoul in good health today following their release on Thursday.

The five men, employed by Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co and Korea Gas Corp., had been kidnapped by armed militants who staged a bloody raid on a natural gas plant in the Niger Delta on Wednesday.

The militants freed them after a plea by the jailed leader in whose name the Koreans were abducted.

The five, looking tired but in good health, waved their hands to photographers as they walked into the lobby at the Incheon International Airport near Seoul. Some of them were greeted by family members.

''I'm just happy to be back alive,'' one of the released men, Kim H D, was quoted by Yonhap News as saying. ''I knew that the militants won't hurt us because they explained to us why they kidnapped us.'' The abduction was the latest incident in a wave of violence against the energy industry in the Niger Delta, where militancy is fuelled by poverty, lawlessness, corruption and struggles for control of a lucrative oil theft business.

The delta has about 3,500 oil and gas installations spread across 74,000 sq km of swamp and forest, and military officials say it would be impossible to guard every one all the time.

REUTERS SHB RAI0938