S Korea urges release of hostages, Germans threatened

KABUL, July 21 (Reuters) South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun today called for the release of 23 countrymen held hostage by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, saying they were medical volunteers.

The call came as the Taliban threatened to kill two German hostages seized this week if their demand to free all of the Islamic movement's members in Afghan prisons was not met by an 1300 hrs deadline.

The Taliban is also seeking the withdrawal of all German troops from Afghanistan, a demand rejected by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a newspaper interview today.

Insurgents kidnapped 23 South Koreans from a bus in southwest Ghazni province on Thursday in what was the biggest group of foreigners seized so far in the militant campaign to oust the government and its Western backers.

''We understand the kidnapped South Koreans have been doing medical volunteer services,'' Roh told a news conference in Seoul.

''The kidnappers must release our people as soon as possible, and safely. In any case, valuable lives should not be damaged.'' A South Korean Foreign Ministry official had said on Friday about 20 South Korean Christian volunteers were feared to have been kidnapped by Taliban insurgents.

Last year, the South Korean government tried to stop a group of 2,000 Korean Christians travelling to Afghanistan for a peace conference, fearing for their safety.

But 900 of them still came to Afghanistan, causing an uproar in the staunchly Muslim country -- where many accused them of being evangelical missionaries -- before they were all deported.

South Korea has no combat troops in Afghanistan, but has a contingent of 200 engineers, doctors and medical staff. Roh said they would remain in Afghanistan until their mission was complete.

''The troops in Afghanistan are non-combatant, doing medical and support work. They have been trying to treat hundreds of people everyday and help reconstruct Afghanistan by building welfare facilities and bridges, and their mission is nearing an end,'' Roh said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters from an undisclosed location that the group's leadership council would decide on Saturday the fate of the Koreans, who included 18 women.

GERMAN THREAT He said the two Germans along with six Afghans who were abducted from their vehicle southwest of Kabul on Wednesday were in good condition.

''The Taliban leadership council has set 12:00 (local time) as deadline for the two German hostages. And if the deadline is not met, we will kill them,'' he told Reuters by telephone.

German Chancellor Merkel has dismissed the idea that Germany should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

''We can't give up our efforts now,'' she was quoted as saying in an interview with Passauer Neue Presse newspaper on Saturday.

''The Afghan people can't be abandoned.'' A spokeswoman for Germany's Foreign Ministry reiterated that Berlin had received no clear evidence that the two Germans were in the hands of the Taliban.

She said a special crisis task force at the ministry was working closely with the Afghan government to secure the release of the hostages.

At the beginning of July a German was taken hostage and then freed after a week. In October 2006 two German journalists were murdered in the relatively stable northern part of the country where there are over 3,000 German troops stationed as part of a NATO peacekeeping force.

The Afghan government said it was not aware of the Taliban ultimatum on the German hostages.

The Afghan government drew stern criticism for releasing a group of Taliban prisoners in return for the freedom of an Italian journalist kidnapped in March and the government then said it would not deal with the Islamist movement.

REUTERS SV RK1325