Stories by Nina Ahn, Corina Knoll, Suevon Lee, Chris Paek and Michelle Woo, compiled from news and wire reports

Forty-one days after 23 South Korean church volunteers were captured in Afghanistan by Taliban insurgents, South Korea’s government announced it had reached an agreement with the kidnappers to release all remaining 19 hostages, under the condition that it would ban further church-sponsored missions in Afghanistan and withdraw its troops from the region by the end of the year.

“The government will take all necessary measures for the safe return of all the hostages,” South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon announced Aug. 28, adding that the timing of the hostages’ release was still being worked out.

The agreement was reached during the fourth round of face-to-face talks between Taliban leaders and South Korean negotiators who traveled directly to Afghanistan to meet with the kidnappers, the Korea Times reported. The meeting was mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The first round of talks resulted in the Aug. 13 release of two female hostages, Kim Kyung-ja, 37, and Kim Ji-na, 32, who were said to be in frail health.

Captured in mid-July, the South Korean hostages were members of Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, a suburb located 20 minutes outside Seoul. The group, consisting mostly of women in their 20s and 30s, was on a 10-day relief mission when the bus, on its way from the country’s capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar, was intercepted by Taliban insurgents.

The group of South Koreans comprised the largest number of hostages seized in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion of the country began in 2001.

Using the seized hostages as leverage, the kidnappers demanded the return of 23 Taliban prisoners captured by Afghan and U.S. security forces. When a series of deadlines set by the kidnappers passed without being met by the Afghan government, they shot and killed 42-year-old Bae Hyung-kyu, the group’s leader, and 29-year-old Shim Sung-min, a former information technology worker, whose body was found on the side of the road in the Andar District.

The prolonged standoff prompted South Korean civic groups to angrily call upon its government to exert more pressure on its diplomatic allies. “As everyone knows, the Taliban’s demand is something the U.S. government can help resolve, not the Afghan or South Korean government,” the Seoul-based People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said in a statement issued July 31. “Why can’t [the South Korean government] use the spirit of the alliance to help persuade the U.S. administration and save its own people?”

Seoul first deployed troops to Afghanistan in 2002 at the request of the U.S. government. Approximately 200 South Koreans, most of them engineers and medics, are currently stationed in the country.

Saemmul Church also faced strong criticism for sending its members to such a politically unstable region, but repeatedly denied the members were conducting evangelical work in the Islamic region.

Kim Ji-na, one of the two released hostages, told Arabic-language television news network Al Jazeera that church members had been in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif distributing medicine to patients and cutting children’s hair, before heading to southern Afghanistan to volunteer at a hospital and school.

The recent hostage crisis has provoked heated debate in South Korea about the country’s recent surge in global church-sponsored missions. In 2004, eight Korean missionaries traveling to Iraq were briefly kidnapped, then later released. In 2006, more than 1,000 South Korean Christians congregating in Afghanistan for a peace festival were forced to leave due to safety issues.

The head pastor of Saemmul Church, Park Eun-jo, said in an interview with the New York Times that 200 South Korean aid missions were conducted without incident in Afghanistan this year alone.

“Our people went to Afghanistan because they loved the country,” he told the newspaper. “They were people with a noble dream who saved money and used their summer vacation to realize humanitarianism.”

SUB; Lives Lost Two die at the hands of the Taliban

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Bae Hyung-kyu

Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, deputy head pastor of Saemmul Presbyterian Church, studied at the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul and became a minister in 2001. He led the trip to Afghanistan despite the fact that he was suffering from respiratory complications that required medication. In a sermon addressed to his congregation only two weeks before his departure to Afghanistan, Bae said, “Dying for Christ is a glorious thing. Don’t cry for me if I die in service to my Lord. Put on my tombstone, ‘He died training young people to make a difference in the world.’”

Bae’s bullet-riddled body was found on a highway in the Ghazni Province on July 25. It was his 42nd birthday.

Shim Sung-min

Before traveling on the mission to Afghanistan, Shim Sung-min was preparing to attend graduate school. Friends and family described him as a “gentle soul” who had a passion for volunteer work. Shim left his work as an information technology worker to prepare for graduate school and to focus on his volunteer work. With an aunt who is visually impaired, he devoted much of his time to helping people with physical and mental impairments. He did not tell his family of his plans to travel to Afghanistan. Just hours before the group was kidnapped, he called his mother and told her not to worry.

The 29-year-old’s body was discovered in the village of Arzoo, about 90 miles south of Kabul, on July 30.

SUB; Free, But Still Burdened The first two released hostages speak

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On Aug. 13, three days after talks began between Taliban militants and Korean negotiators, two female hostages identified as Kim Kyung-ja, 37, and Kim Ji-na, 32, were released as a “goodwill gesture” toward the Korean people.

“When we were released, I couldn’t really feel happy,” said Kim Kyung-ja to news outlet Al Jazeera. “My heart was breaking. I was thinking about the remaining 19 hostages.”

They also confirmed reports that another hostage, Lee Ji-young, 32, forfeited her chance to go free so that Kim Ji-na would be released instead. Lee was allowed to write a note to her parents to be passed on by the two freed hostages.

“I’m faring well and am healthy. Don’t worry,” wrote Lee to her family in Seoul. “I’m eating well and am OK. Don’t get sick and please be OK.”

While in captivity Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na were unaware of the deaths of Bae Hyung-kyu and Shim Sung-min. They reportedly broke down in tears when they discovered the news.

Initially, it was reported that the two women were seriously ill, but they appeared to be in good health upon their release. “They provided us with basic necessities: food, medicine, water, bedding; they didn’t mistreat us,” said Kim Ji-na.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera’s television network, the two ex-hostages pleaded for the release of the remaining aid workers.

SUB; Held Captive The 19 final hostages

Ahn Hye-jin, 31, Web designer  |  Cha Hye-jin, 31, piano instructor  |  Han Ji-young, 34, English teacher  |  Im Hyun-joo, 32, guide who has been in Afghanistan since 2004  |  Je Chang-hee, 38, English teacher  |  Kim Yun-young, 35, mother of two  |

Ko Se-hun, 27, college student  |  Lee Jeong-ran, 33, nurse  |  Lee Ji-young, 36, involved in aid work in Afghanistan since 2006  |  Lee Joo-yeon, 27, nurse  |  Lee Sun-young, 37, designer  |  Lee Sung-eun, 24, preschool teacher  |  Lee Young-kyung, 22, college student  |  Park Hye-young, 34, guide who has been in Afghanistan since January 2006  |  Seo Kyung-seok, 27, brother of Myung-hwa  |  Seo Myung-hwa, 29, nurse  |  Song Byung-woo, 33, company worker  |  Yoo Jung-hwa, 39, English teacher  |

Yoo Kyung-sik, 55, Saemmul church pastor

SUB; Mission Possible?

Church leaders are under pressure to scale back their aggressive evangelism efforts

In the past two decades, South Korea has rapidly risen as the world’s second largest source of Christian missionaries, trailing only behind the United States. According to the Korean World Mission Association, 16,600 Korean missionaries were stationed in 173 countries as of last year. Leaders of Korean churches and mission agencies had planned to send out 100,000 missionaries by 2030.

But since the news of the kidnapping of 23 South Korean missionaries by the Taliban arrived, the aggressive evangelism efforts of South Korean Christians have been put under a watchful eye. This isn’t the first time Korea’s missionaries have run into trouble. In 2004, a translator looking to do missionary work was beheaded in Iraq. That same year, seven other missionaries who ventured into Iraq were kidnapped but later released. Last year in Afghanistan, more than 1,000 Korean Christians were deported.

Today, critics of the Korean missions movement are speaking out with increased fervor. The Chosun Ilbo, one of South Korea’s largest newspapers, called efforts to evangelize in highly restrictive areas such as Afghanistan “futile,” claiming such activities can put the entire country in crisis. According to Sung-Deuk Oak, a professor in Korean Christianity at the University of California, Los Angeles, the recent events have fueled negative sentiments toward South Korea’s “mega-churches,” generally classified as churches with more than 10,000 members, which organize and fund many of the short-term trips.

“Now [anti-Christians] attack the churches’ triumphalism in mission, lack of sensitivity toward other cultures and religions, and theological fundamentalism of the conservative Protestant churches,” Oak said.

While the pressure to scale back on such evangelism has intensified, many Korean Christians, both in Korea and the U.S., say that the kidnappings will not stop missionaries from moving forward with their plans, despite the dangers. Jonathan Park, an assistant pastor at the Wilshire United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, which works closely with Korean missionaries, says that while he doesn’t know what safety precautions the hostages in Afghanistan took, they were there to fulfill a divine duty.

“I don’t think that they were reckless or not thinking straight in any way,” said Park, who heard about the kidnappings while on a mission trip in Kazhakstan. “They answered the call that they received in their lives. With all missionaries, there’s the understanding that persecution is always a potential. It’s part of their life in Christ, who paid the dear cost on the cross.”

Christianity was introduced in Korea about 120 years ago, but only took a firm grasp in the 1960s, after the Korean War. Today, about 30 percent of South Korea’s 49 million citizens are Christian. In the past two decades, after the government allowed its citizens to travel freely, missionary work flourished. While about half of Korean missionaries travel to other East Asian countries, a growing number venture to areas in the Middle East. Following the example of foreign missionaries, South Korean missions almost always have humanitarian agendas, as volunteers set out to build homes, work at orphanages or provide medical services.

Oak believes that South Korean missionaries must learn how to present themselves in cultures where a Christian presence is unwelcome. He said that currently, missionaries in Korea receive limited training on adapting to the foreign environment: “They live in a homogeneous culture. The leaders were mostly trained in conservative seminaries in Korea. Many speak very little English. They need to be more accommodating and sensitive to the attitudes of other cultures without losing the identity of Christianity.” Oak said that a revision of the Korean church’s mission policy is crucial.

SUB; House Of Worship Saemmul responds to the kidnappings

Saemmul Presbyterian Church, located in Bundang, a commuter city just south of Seoul, has been sending its members on missions since its establishment in 1959.

Its 5,000-member congregation is encouraged to serve in poverty-stricken and perilous areas where they can be of the most help. At the time of the Taliban kidnapping, the church was sponsoring more than 40 Christian workers in 14 countries, seven of whom had been based in Afghanistan for the last five years.

But since 23 of its members were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and two subsequently killed, Saemmul’s mission program has come under scrutiny.

Park Eun-jo, the church’s senior pastor, apologized for the grief and pain their families were experiencing.

“I know that dying for the Lord is noble and that these men will be rewarded in heaven for their sacrifice,” Park told the Baptist Press on Aug. 14. “But to actually lose two friends was something that was unexpected and for which I was unprepared. To see it happen has been very, very difficult.”

He maintains, however, that the hostages were there for humanitarian reasons and not to proselytize, noting that evangelizing was impossible because the aid workers did not speak the local language. He also said the church would exercise greater care and wisdom regarding missions in the future.

SUB; From Capture To Release Forty-three days of terror

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n July 19 Taliban fighters kidnap 23 South Korean Presbyterian Christian aid workers traveling on a bus from Kandahar to Kabul in the Ghazni Province. It is the largest abduction of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

n July 20 The Taliban gives South Korea 24 hours to remove its 200 troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the lives of the hostages. Korean President Roh Moo-hyun calls for their release.

n July 25 South Korean pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, 42, is executed by the Taliban when its demands aren’t met. South Korea’s foreign ministry identifies him as the leader of the group. President Roh issues a statement on the killings: “The government strongly protests their act of brutality in killing an innocent civilian.”

n July 28 Several Afghan elders and a former member of the Taliban join the negotiations over the release of the remaining 22 Korean hostages. They condemn the actions of the Taliban as being contrary to the tenets of Islam and Afghan culture.

n July 29 The Taliban sets a concrete deadline for July 30. They demand the release of 23 Taliban militants being held prisoner by the Afghan government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai indicates that a prisoner exchange will not be possible. Pope Benedict issues a statement from the Vatican, calling the kidnappings a “grave violation of human dignity that clashes with every elementary norm of civility and rights and gravely offends divine law.”

n July 30 A second hostage, 29-year-old Shim Sung-min, is killed as the second deadline passes. Meanwhile, one of the female hostages speaks on the phone with the BBC pleading, “We want from the Koreans, from the U.N. and human rights people to exchange us, and that they do this. We are all sick and we have a lot of problems.”

n July 31 A new deadline is set for Aug. 1, 7:30 a.m. GMT.

n August 1 Deadline passes and no hostages have been killed. The Taliban agrees to a face-to-face meeting with members of the Korean delegation. North Korea also calls for the release of the hostages.

n August 5 Afghan doctors drop $1,200 worth of medicine, including heart pills, antibiotics and painkillers in the Qarabagh district of the Ghanzni province. This is done with the approval of the Taliban rebels who are holding the remaining hostages.

n August 10 Two Taliban leaders meet with four South Korean officials for the first round of talks concerning the Korean hostages. Also attending this meeting are four members of the international Red Cross who facilitate the discussion.

n August 13 Two female hostages, identified as Kim Kyung-ja, 37, and Kim Ji-na, 32, are released as a goodwill gesture “without any condition or return.” They are released amidst reports that they were “seriously ill” during their captivity.

n August 17 Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na arrive at Incheon International Airport. They are transferred to a military hospital under government supervision so as not to interfere with ongoing negotiations for the remaining 19 hostages. The U.S. and Afghan governments reiterate that they will not release any prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

n August 20 Negotiations between Taliban militants and South Korean officials have stalled over a key Taliban demand: the release of eight Taliban prisoners being held by the Afghan government. Signaling a growing impatience, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claims that efforts by the Korean negotiators to meet this demand have not been sufficient.

n August 23 The two ex-hostages beg for the release of the remaining 19 hostages, saying that the relief of being released is overshadowed by their concern for the others. In their first one-on-one interview since returning to Korea, Kim Ji-na insists that they were not harmed.

n August 24 Afghan doctor Mohammad Hashim Wahaaj, who has direct contact with Taliban commander Mullah Mansor, is told that the remaining hostages are in good health. They have been split into groups and are being moved every 6 to 8 hours to avoid detection by Afghan security forces.

n August 25 The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), a Pakistan-based information service, reports that a deal has been struck to release the 19 remaining hostages. Citing unnamed sources, the AIP reports that in exchange for the release of the hostages, the Taliban is prepared to accept an early withdrawal of Korean troops from the Afghanistan area. A withdrawal plan had already been in place for December. Both a South Korean official and a Taliban spokesman deny that an agreement has been reached.

n August 28 Relatives cheer and hug after being informed that the 19 remaining hostages will be released. Many of them had been holding vigil at Saemmul church since their capture. “We are very sorry to have caused any problems to the country over the kidnappings,” said family spokesman Cha Sung-min.

n August 30 The final seven hostages are freed, joining the 12 who were released the previous day. The South Korean government is criticized for its face-to-face negotiations, seen as a violation of the international principle to not negotiate with terrorists. Government officials maintain that no major concessions were offered to reach Tuesday’s breakthrough deal with the Taliban, except reaffirming its existing plan to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and prevent missionary work in the Muslim nation.

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