KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Taliban militants allowed at least one of their 21 South Koreans hostages in Afghanistan to speak by telephone with Korean officials, a report said Monday.
With many of the surviving hostages reported to be ill, Yonhap news agency reported officials from the Korean embassy in Kabul said they were allowed to speak in Korean with one hostage but details of the conversation were not disclosed.
A man claiming to be a commander of the Taliban, however, was quoted as telling Yonhap the militants had allowed three female hostages to speak with South Korean officials in their language.
"The reason we made this exception and let them speak in Korean was to show our sincerity toward the South Korean government," the commander told Yonhap.
The tense hostage situation has remained unresolved since the victims were kidnapped July 19. The militants have killed two of them to press their demand for the release of Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government.
The Afghan government, so far, has refused to meet the Taliban demand for a prisoner-hostage swap. The militants are believed to have separated the hostages into smaller groups at different locations to discourage any military operation to free them.
