JAK Calls for "Urgent" Global Media Support for Immediate Release of South Korean Captive





A South Korean civilian, Kim Sun-il, 33, who works as an Arabic interpreter for Baghdad-based Korean trading firm Gana General Trading Co., was abducted in Falluja on June 17 by Iraqi insurgents, who claim they belong to Tawhid wa al-Jihad, led by al-Qaida operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi but the Gana president identified them as members of a Monotheism and Jihad Group.

The abduction came one day before the Seoul government announced that it would send an additional 3,000 troops to the Irbil area in northern Iraq. About 600 South Korean military engineers and medics are now stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

Over the additional troop dispatch plan, opinions have been sharply divided in South Korean political circles, even within the ruling party. Most civic groups and the JAK have also opposed the deployment plan, while the Seoul government has maintained that its mission "is to help reconstruct the war-ravaged Iraq."



In video footage that was aired June 20 by the Qatar-based pan-Arab satellite television station, Al-Jazeera, Kim begged for his life and pleaded for the Seoul government to call off its plan to additionally send troops to Iraq. Kim was seen sitting in front of three masked gunmen, one of whom threatened to behead him unless the Korean government drops its additional deployment plan within 24 hours.

The 24-hour deadline already passed as of 2 a.m. June 22 local time. The fate of Kim is still uncertain but Koreans hope he is still alive.

"Such inhumane acts of abduction and beheading of innocent civilians couldn't be justified at any means and we urgently and strongly urge the Iraqi militants to set an innocent Kim free immediately and unconditionally," said Lee Sang-ki, president of the JAK. "It is totally absurd for Iraqi militants to link Kim's release to Seoul's calling off its troop deployment plan."



In his latest phone call to his parents, Kim, unmarried, the third and only son of four children, promised to return home next month to celebrate his father's 70th birthday, according to Kim's family members. Kim's family said he dreamed of being a missionary in Arab countries.