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Korea will go ahead with its plan to dispatch more troops to Iraq

Shock, grief and rage engulfed the nation yesterday as Koreans learned the news that al-Qaida-linked terrorists in Iraq beheaded their Korean hostage Tuesday night.

The government vowed to press ahead with its plans to send more troops to Iraq despite the murder of Kim Sun-il, a 33-year-old translator, saying it would not cave in to terrorist threats.

The kidnappers had threatened Sunday night to execute Kim unless Seoul agreed within 24 hours to withdraw its 660 medics and engineers from the war-torn state and scrap plans to send an additional 3,000 troops. Seoul refused to accept the demand.

The U.S. military in Iraq found the body of an Asian in Fallujah about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday Korean time and the Korean Embassy in Baghdad identified the victim as Kim.

The mother of Korean hostage Kim Sun-il cries at her home in Busan yesterday.[The Korea Herald]

The Foreign Ministry confirmed his death shortly after the Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a videotape sent by the captors, in which they announced they were about to carry out their threat.

Hooded gunmen were seen standing over a kneeling Kim, wearing an orange blindfold and dressed in an orange jumpsuit similar to those worn by prisoners in the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.

"We warned you and you ignored it," one of the men said in a statement to the Korean people. "Enough lies. Your army is not here for the sake of Iraqis but for the sake of cursed America."

The TV network said the tape went on to show one of the men cutting off Kim's head with a knife, but the station did not broadcast the execution.

In a brief television speech, President Roh Moo-hyun said he would never tolerate terrorism and strongly condemned it as a crime against humanity. But he said Seoul's troop dispatch was still needed to help rebuild Iraq.

Roh offered his condolences to Kim's bereaved family. "When we think of his desperate appeals for life, our hearts are wrenched with grief," the president said.

Korean television showed Kim's grief-stricken father, mother and other relatives weeping and hugging each other in their home in Busan as they learned the news.

"Bring back my brother, bring back my brother," wailed his younger sister Kim Jong-sook. His 69-year old father Kim Jong-kyu and mother Shin Young-ja sobbed and collapsed on the floor.

The execution was condemned across the nation.

"The killing of Kim can't be justified for any reason. We will not suc*****b to terrorism targeting innocent citizens," Uri Party spokesman Im Jong-seok told a news briefing yesterday morning after a meeting between the ruling party, the National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil said, "There is no change in our position and spirit that our troop deployment to Iraq is for humanitarian relief and rehabilitation."

Government officials, politicians and citizens had all appealed for Kim's safe and quick release after a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera Monday showed Kim surrounded by heavily armed militants begging for his life.

But officials said there was little room for negotiation because Korea was firm on the troop dispatch plan and the 24-hour deadline was way too short. This apparently pushed Kim's captors to carry out their threat.

The same group, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is believed to have beheaded American civilian Nicholas Berg in Iraq last month and broadcast the killing on the Internet. Washington is seeking Zarqawi for a long list of attacks in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein and has put a $10 million price on his head.

American contractor Paul Johnson was beheaded in Saudi Arabia last week by militant extremists said to be sympathetic to al-Quaida.

Kim's murder is expected to stir up a political crisis for Roh and reinforce public opposition to the highly unpopular troop deployment.

Many of Roh's young and liberal supporters have already been alienated because of the president's decision to support the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Many political observers now worry Kim's death may only be a harbinger of a series of attacks on Koreans, as Seoul will become the third-largest coalition partner in Iraq, after the United States and Britain, once the additional troop dispatch goes ahead in August.

Following the beheading, the government decided to evacuate an estimated 65 Koreans from Iraq, except for essential personnel.

Officials are concerned than many civilian volunteers, who are not registered with the Korean Embassy in Baghdad, may be staying in Iraq, making it difficult for the authorities to find their whereabouts and evacuate them.

The 660 medics and engineers already in Iraq yesterday suspended medical treatment to Iraqis and strengthened the guard on their compounds.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, said Kim's body was found between Falluja and Baghdad Tuesday evening. Kim was kidnapped in Falluja, the hotbed of Iraqi resistance, last Thursday, apparently with some of his American colleagues, but the details remain unclear.

"It appears that the body had been thrown from a vehicle," Kimmitt said in a statement. "The man had been beheaded and the head was recovered with the body."

The Korean consulate in Iraq and Kim Chun-ho, president of Gana General Trading Co., for which Kim worked as an Arabic translator, traveled to the site to receive his remains. The government is working to bring his body home as soon as possible.

U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the beheading as "barbaric" and said he remained confident that Korea would go ahead with its plans to send additional troops to Iraq.

"The free world cannot be intimidated by the brutal actions of these barbaric people," Bush said.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also condemned "in the strongest terms this heartless crime, which no political or other cause can justify."

"On this sad and painful occasion, the secretary general extends his sincere condolences to the family of Kim Sun-il and the government of the Republic of Korea," a U.N. spokesman said.

(soyoung@heraldm.com)

By Kim So-young and agencies