Iraqi insurgents beheaded the South Korean civilian they were holding hostage, the Pentagon said today. The insurgents, in a video broadcast Sunday, had given South Korea 24 hours to cancel plans to send 3,000 additional troops to Iraq, threatening to behead Kim if it did not.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Posted: 3:20 PM EDT (1920 GMT)
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Iraqi insurgents have carried out their threat to behead the South Korean civilian they were holding hostage, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The Pentagon said U.S. military police found the body and notified the South Korean military, which in turn notified the South Korean Embassy in Baghdad.
"It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news. A body identified to be of an Asian man was found between Baghdad and Fallujah," said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-Kil in Seoul.
"Afterwards, the photo of the body was e-mailed to the South Korean Embassy and was confirmed to be the body of Kim Sun Il."
In a video broadcast Sunday, the insurgents had given South Korea 24 hours to cancel plans to send 3,000 additional troops to Iraq, threatening to behead Kim if it did not.
In the face of the captors' threat, the South Korean government reaffirmed the deployment plans Tuesday.
South Korea plans to send 3,000 troops to Erbil in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. Military officials say about half are combat troops trained to protect the rest, who are to help rebuild Iraq, distribute aid and train security forces.
About 670 South Korean military medics and engineers in southern Iraq since May last year will move to Erbil to join the main force, which Seoul sees as a difficult but vital gesture to the United States, an ally with 37,500 troops in the South to deter North Korea.
Kim, 33, was seized Thursday in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. He was an Arabic speaker and evangelical Christian who had worked in Iraq for a year as a translator for a South Korean firm supplying goods to the U.S. military.
The Arabic language television network Al-Jazeera broadcast a video very similar to the first portion of one it aired earlier this year before the graphic beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg, with armed and masked insurgents standing behind their blindfolded captive, who kneels on the floor.
"To the South Korean citizens: We warned you," one of the militants says, reading a statement. "This is the result of your own doings. Enough lies, or cheatings. "Your soldiers here are not for the sake for the Iraqis, but they are here for the cursed America."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/22/iraq.hostage/index.html
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Posted: 3:20 PM EDT (1920 GMT)
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Iraqi insurgents have carried out their threat to behead the South Korean civilian they were holding hostage, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The Pentagon said U.S. military police found the body and notified the South Korean military, which in turn notified the South Korean Embassy in Baghdad.
"It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news. A body identified to be of an Asian man was found between Baghdad and Fallujah," said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-Kil in Seoul.
"Afterwards, the photo of the body was e-mailed to the South Korean Embassy and was confirmed to be the body of Kim Sun Il."
In a video broadcast Sunday, the insurgents had given South Korea 24 hours to cancel plans to send 3,000 additional troops to Iraq, threatening to behead Kim if it did not.
In the face of the captors' threat, the South Korean government reaffirmed the deployment plans Tuesday.
South Korea plans to send 3,000 troops to Erbil in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. Military officials say about half are combat troops trained to protect the rest, who are to help rebuild Iraq, distribute aid and train security forces.
About 670 South Korean military medics and engineers in southern Iraq since May last year will move to Erbil to join the main force, which Seoul sees as a difficult but vital gesture to the United States, an ally with 37,500 troops in the South to deter North Korea.
Kim, 33, was seized Thursday in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. He was an Arabic speaker and evangelical Christian who had worked in Iraq for a year as a translator for a South Korean firm supplying goods to the U.S. military.
The Arabic language television network Al-Jazeera broadcast a video very similar to the first portion of one it aired earlier this year before the graphic beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg, with armed and masked insurgents standing behind their blindfolded captive, who kneels on the floor.
"To the South Korean citizens: We warned you," one of the militants says, reading a statement. "This is the result of your own doings. Enough lies, or cheatings. "Your soldiers here are not for the sake for the Iraqis, but they are here for the cursed America."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/22/iraq.hostage/index.html
