South Korea and the United States agreed not to use force to free 21 Korean hostages in Afghanistan on Tuesday, but Afghan troops warned villagers of a possible offensive in the area where the captives are held.
The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Korean church volunteers in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, two weeks ago and have killed two of them. The hardline Islamist guerrillas have said they will kill the rest unless their jailed comrades were freed. South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met on the sidelines of a regional security forum in the Philippines on Thursday."They agreed that both countries will not use any kind of force," said a South Korean diplomat after the meeting.
The body of Shim Sung-min, 29, the second South Korean hostage shot dead by Taliban militants is expected to arrive home on Thursday. His family said it would hold a funeral and then donate his remains for medical research.
The remaining 21 hostages are still alive, a Taliban spokesman said on Wednesday, but warned they might be killed if the Afghan government does not free insurgent prisoners.
The government has refused to give in to the demand, saying that would only encourage further abductions.
The Taliban have also warned that any attempt to rescue the hostages by force would put the captives' lives at risk.
The Defence Ministry said army helicopters had dropped leaflets in several districts of Ghazni province on Wednesday warning residents to move to secure areas to avoid casualties during an operation to be launched in the "coming weeks".
But the ministry said it was a routine operation not linked with the kidnapping. Both Afghan and foreign troops were stationed in the area, a local official said.
