Here is the CNN article:
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean negotiators in Afghanistan have reached a deal with Taliban militants holding 19 South Korean Christian aid workers for over a month, a presidential spokesman in Seoul said Tuesday.
The group of South Koreans was kidnapped in Ghazni province on July 19.
Seoul welcomes the deal, but spokesman Cheon Ho-sun cautioned that many details must still be worked out and the aid workers will not be released immediately.
Under the terms of the agreement, South Korea agreed to stick by its previous decision to withdraw its 200 non-combat troops from Afghanistan, which work mostly in an engineering and medical capacity.
In addition, Seoul will halt all Christian missionary work in Afghanistan.
The spokesman said there was no agreement to pay the captors, nor was there any mention of releasing Taliban prisoners -- a major demand of the kidnappers.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said delegates from
South Korea and the Taliban had "reached an agreement" to free the captives in face-to-face talks Tuesday in the central town of Ghazni.
Twenty-three hostages, all church volunteers, were seized July 19 by the
Taliban militant group while they were traveling on a bus in Afghanistan. Two were executed and two others were freed, leaving 19 still in captivity.
While South Korean missionaries have been active in the region, the hostage group's church has said the kidnapped group's trip to Afghanistan did not involve Christian missionary work.
In South Korea the hostages' relatives welcomed news of the deal.
"I would like to dance," said Cho Myung-ho, mother of 28-year-old hostage Lee Joo-yeon, in a report from The Associated Press.
The kidnapping of government officials or foreign aid workers has been used increasingly by insurgents in a bid to destabilize the Western-backed government that took power after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001.
Violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest level since the Taliban were expelled from government nearly six years ago.
(Article continues but is irrelevant to topic).
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As for that spokesman who said that their work was not religious, I find that hard to believe. For these people, anything not Christian (in the twisted Korean Christianity way) is wrong and doing things in their own manner is just so "obvious" to them that they cannot take accept any other view on reality. I know these types as I've seen them before. They are no smarter than that South Carolina bumbling girl from that youtube video. They think sitting their asses down and praying will solve everything. One wonders what motivates them to go to work. Heck if praying can prevent you from being kidnapped from a kidnap rich environment with guys with guns without any level of protection, I'm sure praying can land you a free chicken dinner.
I agree that all religious work in this area should cease immediately. If they are ever caught again, the South Korean government should demand their immediate release so that they can face execution in South Korea.
Thanks to these clowns, the small RoK military presence in Afghanistan must cease doing its good work.