Unsurprisingly the Taliban promise to release two female Korean hostages has been broken:
In the first face-to-face negotiations with South Korean officials on Saturday, Taliban leaders reportedly agreed to set free two sick female hostages as a sign of good faith but they later shelved the plan, according to Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who describes himself as speaking for the Taliban.
"The plan to release two female hostages first is still valid, but the timing has not been fixed yet," Ahmadi told Yonhap News Agency by telephone.
The spokesman said Taliban’s plan to release two Korean women was put on hold at the last moment. He declined further comments, only saying, "I hope the situation will be resolved quickly."
This is all code words for the Taliban thinking Seoul will pay even more ransom than what they are already offering. No word on how this is all America’s fault yet.
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8:06 am on August 13th, 2007 1
Right out of the nK playbook. The Taliban pays attention.
When the South “negotiates” with the North it always reminds me of Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. Without fail the end up flat on their back, wondering what happened. I am not certain whether the South Korean “negotiators” are incompetent, or just naive.
9:10 am on August 13th, 2007 2
Probably both. I wonder if they paid the ransom first before receiving the hostages? This would be extra embarrassing if they paid the ransom and the Taliban took the money but did not release the hostages and demanded more money.
Even more embarrassing would be that they paid the wrong ransomers again.
4:13 pm on August 13th, 2007 3
The hostages have nothing to worry about, we should leave it in God’s hands.
7:06 am on August 14th, 2007 4
[...] are they trying to hot dog for the cameras, but they are also spreading disinformation with the over the release of two hostages that initially proved to be false. Now the Korean government must have finally paid off the proper [...]