Taliban Agrees to Release 19 Korean Christian Hostages

|PIC2|The Taliban has agreed to release the 19 South Korean hostages held in Afghanistan in return for the withdrawal of South Korean troops from the country before the end of the year, Al Jazeera television has reported.

The Qatar-based channel said it had received the report from its Kabul correspondent: "There was an agreement between the Taliban and a South Korean delegation to release the hostages in return for the withdrawal of the troops before the end of the year."

A South Korean presidential spokesman has confirmed the reports but has added that many details still had to be worked out, and that it may take some time before the actual release takes place.

The Taliban reportedly only agreed to the release after South Korea agreed to meet other conditions such as halting its citizens from conducting any Christian missionary activity in the Middle Eastern country.

Under the terms of the agreement, South Korea's 200 non-combat troops in Afghanistan, mostly operating in an engineering and medical capacity, will be withdrawn.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, has said negotiations were "successful", however, he would not elaborate when asked to comment on the release of the hostages.

The Taliban till now had insisted that the Korean hostages would only be released after Kabul had freed jailed Taliban members.

Taliban and South Korean negotiators were expected to resume talks on Tuesday, following a collapse in negotiations nearly two weeks ago after the Korean team told the Taliban it could not fulfil the group's main demand to free Taliban prisoners jailed by the Afghan Government.

The Taliban Islamic movement kidnapped the 23 Korean Christian aid volunteers on 19 July as they travelled by bus in Ghazni province.

The group has so far killed two male hostages after issuing a series of deadlines, but has also freed two female captives as a gesture of goodwill during the first round of talks.