Traumatised ROK hostages return home

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South Koreans Kim Gi-Na (right) and Kim Kyung-Ja (left), recently released South Korean aid workers who were kidnapped in Afghanistan, answer reporters’ questions upon their arrival at Incheon International Airport Seoul Friday.

SEOUL, Aug 17 (AFP): Two female aid workers freed by Afghanistan's Taliban returned home Friday to South Korea, after learning for the first time that two fellow captives were killed during the nearly month-long ordeal.
Kim Gi-Na and Kim Kyung-Ja looked shocked and traumatised when they briefly appeared before TV cameras after landing at Incheon airport west of Seoul.
"I'm sorry for causing so much concern for the people," Kyung-Ja, 37, said in mumbled remarks. "I hope all the remaining hostages return home at the earliest possible date."
Gi-na, 32, added: "I only hope all the remaining people will be immediately freed."
The pair were among a group of 23 South Korean aid workers, including 16 women, who were seized by the Taliban on July 19 while travelling by coach through insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.
The guerrillas shot dead two male hostages to press their demands for the release of Taliban prisoners, a demand rejected by the Kabul government.
The women, who were freed Monday, were told only when they started their journey home that the two men had been shot dead, a government official who accompanied them told Yonhap news agency.
"They learned of the two deaths only after they began heading for home on August 16," the unidentified official said. "They were shocked and traumatised at the news and were lost for words for a while.
"They wept for half an hour."
The hostages had been separated into small groups and moved frequently to frustrate any rescue mission.
The women met their brothers on board the plane before heading into the terminal, YTN TV reported. After their brief remarks, they were seen walking hand-in-hand to an ambulance which took them to a military hospital for check-ups.
Gi-Na and Kyung-Ja were released in what the insurgents called a "goodwill gesture" after the Taliban had begun negotiating directly with South Korean government representatives in Afghanistan.