Islamist militants kill S Korean hostage despite clerics' efforts

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Islamist militants kill S Korean hostage despite clerics' efforts
By Mark Huband in London and Andrew Ward in Seoul
Published: June 23 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: June 23 2004 5:00

A South Korean hostage held by Islamist militants in Iraq was killed 
last night in spite of efforts by Iraqi clerics to secure his release.


The South Korean foreign ministry said US forces in Iraq had found the 
body of Kim Sun-il, 33, which its embassy had identified.

A film of the translator was broadcast on al-Jazeera, the Arab 
television channel, which said he had been beheaded. It did not show his 
killing but showed his masked captors standing over Mr Kim as they 
announced they were about to carry out their threat.

George W. Bush said last night that the US would not be intimidated by 
Iraqi militants. "They want us to cower in the face of their brutal 
killings, and the United States will not be intimidated . . . because we 
believe strongly in freedom and liberty." Mr Kim's murder is the latest 
in a series of killings in the Arabian Peninsula in which two US 
citizens have been beheaded by Muslim extremists.

Colin Powell, US secretary of state, said: "This beheading was a 
tragedy. He was an innocent man cut down by senseless barbarism. We 
stand with the people of South Korea and these events will not stop us 
with our war on terrorism.

"I am pleased that the South Korean government remains steadfast against 
this type of terrorism."

In May, Nicholas Berg, a businessman, was murdered in similar 
circumstances in Iraq and last week Paul Johnson, an aeronautical 
engineer, was killed in Saudi Arabia.

The murders of both men were broadcast over the internet. Mr Kim, a 
fluent Arabic speaker, was seized last week near Falluja while working 
for a Korean trading company supplying the US military. His death is a 
political blow to Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean president, who sent troops 
to Iraq in defiance of widespread public opposition, especially within 
his liberal support base.

Mr Kim's execution will cause shock in South Korea, a traditionally 
insular country that has had little experience of overseas conflicts.

South Korean people had been transfixed by the plight of Mr Kim since 
Sunday, when a harrowing videotape was aired on al-Jazeera showing him 
begging for his life. One of the masked men yesterday read a statement 
to the Korean people, saying: "This is what your hands have committed. 
Your army has not come here for the sake of Iraqis, but for cursed America."

The militants from the Jama'at al-Tawhid i-Jihad group, led by Abu Musab 
al-Zarkawi, had threatened to kill Mr Kim unless South Korea withdrew 
its forces from Iraq.

A deadline of yesterday for Seoul to agree to the group's demands was 
extended after Iraqi intermediaries opened a dialogue with the captors.

According to diplomats, some of the demands had been met.

Mr Kim's plight had already become a focus for anti-war sentiment in 
South Korea.


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