South Korean hostages arrive home

A group of South Koreans held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan have arrived in Seoul, amid claims that a ransom was paid for their release.

Taliban insurgents kidnapped 23 South Koreans in mid-July. They killed two male hostages as initial negotiations stumbled and last month released two women captives.

A Taliban leader has claimed South Korea paid the Islamist group more than £10 million to release the remaining 19 missionaries, who had been held for six weeks.

He said the money would be used to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

The Seoul government denies paying a ransom, but critics have said negotiating with the Taliban sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings - which the Taliban have vowed to carry out.

The South Korean government said it only agreed to pull out a small contingent of engineers and medical staff and end South Korean missionary work in the war-torn country in return for the release of the hostages.

A Taliban commander, who refused to be named said: "We got more than $20 million dollars from them.

"With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks."

The commander is on the ten-man leadership council of the Islamist Taliban movement, which is led by the elusive Mullah Mohammad Omar.

But an official at South Korea's presidential Blue House denied his claims.

"The two conditions for the release are that we pull out our troops and stop Korean missionary work in Afghanistan by the end of the year," said the official who also declined to be named.

The hostages have spoken of living in constant fear for their lives and were split up into small groups and shuttled around the Afghan countryside to avoid detection.

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