DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - SOUTH KOREA/AFGHANISTAN: SOUTH KOREANS ENGAGE IN DIRECT TALKS WITH THE TALIBAN - $$$ TRIBUTE DEMANDS UKNOWN AT THIS TIME

S.Korean talks with Taliban raise hostage hopes
by Nasrat Shoaib

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- South Korean officials held their first direct talks with the Taliban Tuesday as the clock ticked toward a sundown deadline for the lives of 23 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan.

The apparently positive development came as the Islamic rebel group said that a German captive who was abducted separately from the Korean Christian aid workers was very sick and was drifting in and out of consciousness.

The rebel group has called for both Berlin and Seoul to pull their troops out of the war-battered country and for the release of 33 insurgents held prisoner by Afghan authorities in exchange for the hostages.

"We've established direct contact with the South Korean delegation through tribal elders," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said by telephone from an unknown location. "We hope this time the talks have a result," he said.

A deadline set by the Taliban, after which they say they will start killing the South Koreans, expires at 1430 GMT. The rebels, remnants of the hardline regime toppled by US-led troops in 2001, have already extended it twice.

The delegation led by the South Korean ambassador to Kabul arrived Tuesday in the southern province of Ghazni where the hostages are being held, said provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai, who was also involved in the talks.

Seoul sent a crisis team into the country Sunday to push for the release of its captive nationals, most of whom are female.

Nearly 1,000 Afghans slammed the Taliban for the "un-Islamic" abductions in a protest in the southern town of Ghazni, the provincial capital.

"We demand that the Taliban free the hostages as soon as possible. Their acts are against our beloved Islam and our respected culture," said one demonstrator, Mir Mahfooz.

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