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Update: Koreans Deny Paying Ransom for Hostages’ Release
Source: BosNewsLife

All 19 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban were released and left Afghanistan late today (Friday, Aug. 31), ending a 43-day hostage crisis that had left two male hostages dead.

The Christian volunteers flew out of Kabul on a chartered U.N. plane headed for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from where they were to continue their flight to Seoul, South Korea. They had reportedly been staying at a five-star hotel in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, under heavy protection.

News of the their expected arrival in Seoul on Sunday, Sept. 2, came as the South Korean government denied media reports that it paid Taliban militants millions of dollars in ransom. Citing unidentified sources in Afghanistan, Japan’s respected Asahi Shimbun newspaper said South Korea paid $2 million to secure the release of the 19 hostages while Arab television network Al Jazeera reported the South Korean government likely paid as much as $40 million to end the ordeal. Presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon Tuesday denied the allegation, saying there were no other conditions for the release of the hostages “officially” discussed or agreed to, reported South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. South Korean officials only admitted they had agreed to halt missionary work and withdraw 200 South Korean troops, as planned, by the end of the year.
 
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