Posted on 06/23/2004 8:59:39 PM PDT by HAL9000
SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Foreign Ministry was notified by a U.S. television company in early June of the kidnapping of a South Korean hostage beheaded earlier this week, a U.S. news report said Wednesday.The beheaded body of Kim Sun-il, 33, a worker for Cana General Trading Co., a Jordan-based South Korean firm, was found by the U.S. military outside Baghdad on Tuesday. An al-Qaida-lined terrorist group claimed responsibility.
His South Korean employer, Cana President Kim Chun-ho, said the worker was believed to have been kidnapped on May 31, not June 17 as previously claimed by himself.
The Associated Press reported in a Baghdad-dateline story that its affiliated television network, APTN, received a videotape on the South Korean man in captivity in the first week of June.
APTN said it decided not to broadcast the tape, because it was unclear whether Kim was being held against his will and that it was told by the South Korean Foreign Ministry that there was no South Korean being held hostage at that time, according to AP.
The AP report triggered controversy over a possible South Korean government attempt to cover up the kidnapping. Its Foreign Ministry has claimed that it was not aware of his capture until Arab TV station Al-Jazeera aired a videotape of his detention on June 20.
On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry strongly denied the allegations of a cover-up.
"Absolutely no reason to cover up," Shin Bong-kil, a ministry spokesman, told the Yonhap News Agency. "Is there any reason to cover up?" Shin said that his ministry has requested AP's Seoul bureau to inform it of details of the press queries it claims it had made regarding the tape. He called it an "urgent" issue for South Korea.
The spokesman said Kim's employer visited the South Korean embassy in Iraq four times -- on June 1, 7, 10 and 16 -- but he never discussed the kidnapping, adding that his visits were all for business consultations.
Ministry officials said they were checking the employer's claim that the kidnapping date was May 31, not June 17.
In the videotape released by APTN on Wednesday, the Korean hostage identifies in English his name, age, hometown and birth date. He also said that he likes the Iraqi people and criticizes the United States for the war in Iraq.
In a dialogue with an unidentified interviewer who was not seen in the tape. the Korean worker said, "(My name is) Kim Sun-il. I am from Korea, South Korea."
It looks apparent in the tape that the man, who was working for a foodstuff company for the U.S. Army, was trying to distance himself from the United States by praising Iraq and its people.
"I delivered items inside the American camp, but I don't like America, American soldiers and George Bush," Kim said, referring to the U.S. president as a terrorist.
He then said he knew George Bush and America attacked Iraq for oil.
"I like Iraqi people. Iraqi people is very kind. In Baghdad street, there are some poor Iraqi people, but I just give them money," he said.
Asked when he entered Iraq, he said, "Baghdad? After a week, six months. I came here and I wanted to learn more about Iraq." (END)
What does it matter exactly what day he was grabed. This poor soul went there to help the Iraqi people and he was murdered by these sub-human soul-less monsters. And so it must go on. The monsters will be killed until they stand down. Once they come here in force, I plan to kill many of them myself.
I think it's an accounting issue.
There are unconfirmed reports that some Americans were also taken hostage when Kim Sun-il was abducted. That's why it matters.
What does it matter exactly what day he was grabed.
I live in Seoul, Korea and it makes a lot of difference to the S Korean people. They are ranting because they feel the outcome could be different if they knew earlier(I'm not saying that, they are). The S Koreans are more likely to negotiate than the US is.
One thing this beheading has done is to convince some of the Koreans that we are in fact dealing with barbarians here.
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