'I don't want to die' pleads Korean under beheading threat

SEOUL - Kim Sun Il told his mother not to worry about his safety. Now, Iraqi militants have issued a televised threat to behead the South Korean businessman.

"Don't worry about me, Mum. I feel comfortable," Kim told his mother recently by telephone when she asked him about danger.

Yesterday, his rasping, desperate cry of "Please get out of here, here, here. I don't want to die" was being broadcast repeatedly on South Korean television stations.

It sent a chill through many people who already had reservations about the Government's plan to send troops to Iraq.

The militants want Seoul to reverse that decision.

The Government said the deployment would go ahead as planned in August.

"We ask you to withdraw your forces from our land and not to send any more troops, and if not we'll send you this Korean's head," said one of a group of armed, masked men standing around the 33-year-old businessman.

A banner in the background named the group as Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad, the militant group led by al Qaeda operative in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Beheading prisoners or cutting their throats has been a shock tactic among al Qaeda militants for some time.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul said South Korea would go ahead with its plan to send 3000 troops to help rebuild Iraq.

Vice-Foreign Minister Choi Young Jin said the Government would do its best to seek the release of Kim.

Kim, an Arabic graduate, was kidnapped in Fallujah on June 17 - the day before South Korea announced where its troops would be deployed after months of agonising over security concerns and public opposition.

The group holding Kim said South Korea had 24 hours from yesterday to withdraw its decision or it would behead him, Arabic television station Al Jazeera reported.

"It's very regrettable and unfortunate," said South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun.

"I request the Foreign Ministry and other related agencies to make all their efforts to save him and address the issue with great care and urgency as Koreans are very concerned about the incident."

He noted the troops were being sent to reconstruct Iraq, not to "engage in hostile activity" against Iraqi people or Arabs.

The president of Kim's company, which supplies goods to the US military PX commissary, had initially sought to negotiate with the kidnappers without telling the Government, Choi said.

He chairs a special task force set up to handle the crisis. The ministry called in Arab ambassadors to ask for help.

The National Police Agency said it had ordered security increased at all US-related sites and those of other countries with troops in Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq