"We appreciate the Korean people for helping us to return to our families. We owe a big debt to the nation and people," said one of the former hostages, Yoo Kyung-shik.
Yoo, fighting back tears, also expressed condolences to the families of the two Koreans who were killed. Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, the leader of the group, was found dead on July 25, and the body of 29-year-old Shim Sung-min was found July 30. Both were killed by the Taliban militants who were trying to pressure the Afghan Government to release their imprisoned fighters.
The aid volunteers greeted one other and heard for the first time last Friday that two of their colleagues had been killed.
"They wept. They hugged. They were shocked at the news of the two men who were killed. They didn't know about that," a South Korean diplomat, who requested to remain anonymous, told Agence France-Presse.
Also on Friday, the former hostages recounted their story in an interview with a South Korean media agency from their hotel in Afghanistan. All foreign media were prohibited from entering the hotel.
"While kidnapped, all I could think about was staying alive," 29-year-old Suh Myung-hwa said in an interview shown on South Korean television, according to the Associated Press. "I didn't feel any pain under captivity, I guess because I was in a panic the whole time, but now that the tension is gone my body aches all over," she said.
After flying out of Kabul on a chartered UN plane, and stopping over in Dubai, the aid workers arrived early Sunday morning in South Korea, where they were reunited with family members before being shuttled off to a hospital in Anyang, just south of Seoul, to undergo medical checks.
According to the Korea Times, hospital officials in Anyang say the freed hostages may need at least one or two weeks of rest. They will also undergo medical checkups and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder by a special medical team of 20 doctors and 15 nurses.
