The beheading of a South Korean hostage by an Iraqi armed group has sparkedanti-war protests by thousands in Seoul, as the government steers a fineline between anti-U.S. sentiment and strategic concerns closer to home, RFAreports.
President Roh Moo-hyun ordered a full investigation Thursday into thekidnapping and beheading of 33-year-old Kim Sun-il by militants in Iraqafter it emerged the man was abducted three weeks before Seoul said it foundout.
"President Roh has asked his top advisers for an extensive review into thecircumstances surrounding the kidnapping and killing and to work to preventsimilar incidents," a presidential spokesman told reporters.
Militants killed Kim after Seoul rejected their demands to pull 670 SouthKorean medics and engineers out of Iraq and drop plans to send a further3,000 troops there.
The gruesome killing has shocked South Koreans, triggering a rally of about3,000 near the U.S. embassy in Seoul late on Wednesday against the dispatchof South Korean troops to Iraq.
U.S. President George W. Bush sent a personal letter of condolence Thursdayto President Roh Moo-hyun to express his condolences over Kim's death. Inthe letter, Bush, on behalf of all of American citizens, sent condolences tothe victim's bereaved family and all Korean people.
Bush also thanked South Koreans for the courage they have shown in the waragainst terrorism.
Meanwhile, the South Korean government scrambled to block Internet access to the gruesome video of Kim's beheading, in an attempt to calm passions followinghis death.
South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication has introduced a24-hour emergency monitoring system to try to shut any Web site that uploadsvideo footage of Kim's execution. Officials said they felt the measures werenecessary while the nation was in mourning.
A major Singapore newspaper also vowed to print no more hostage picturesreleased by Islamic militants in the Middle East, in order to denyterrorists a propaganda platform. "Every time the media prints or transmitsimages of these terrible acts, we are playing right into the hands of theterrorists," the English-language Today tabloid said in a front-pageeditorial titled "Enough is Enough".
Malaysia, which has strongly criticized the U.S. war in Iraq, also condemnedthe killing of Kim. "Islam places a lot of emphasis on justice," foreignminister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted by Malaysia's Bernama news agency assaying. The killings of hostages "do not help our cause in seekingjustice."
World leaders praised President Roh Moo-Hyun for moral fortitude in refusingto concede to the militants' demand to scrap plans for the largerdeployment. But Roh has carefully framed the deployment as a way ofpromoting the achievement of an unrelated goal. #####