The South Korean government has confirmed the death of one of its nationals working in Iraq, translator Kim Sun-il, RFA reports. An armed group in Iraq calling itself the Party of Divine Unity and Jihad was reported to have carried out its threat to behead Kim after Seoul rejected its demands to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed that Kim's body was found by theU.S. military between Baghdad and Fallujah, west of the capital, at 10:20p.m. Tuesday Korea time (5:20 p.m. Iraq time), Shin Bong-kil, spokesman forthe Foreign Ministry, told reporters.
The South Korean embassy in Bagdad confirmed that the body was Kim bystudying a picture of the remains it received by e-mail, Shin said. "Itbreaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news," he said.
The Arabic-language satellite channel Al Jazeera carried videotaped picturesTuesday of armed and masked men surrounding an apparently Korean hostage,blindfolded and sitting on his knees in front of them.
"We had threatened you, but you...insisted on remaining subservient to the tyrant of the age," Al Jazeera quoted the group as saying in a statement.
"He who gives a warning is excused. This is the fruit of your actions. Stoplying and deception. Your army is here [in Iraq] not for the sake of theIraqis, but for the sake of damned America," said the statement.
The group�known in Arabic as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad�had earlierthreatened that Kim would be beheaded if their demands were not met. In avideo shown on Al Jazeera early Monday, the 33-year-old hostage was shownpleading for his life.
The group is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been accused by Washingtonof links to al Qaeda.
Kim, an Arabic speaker and evangelical Christian, had worked in Iraq for ayear as a translator for a Korean firm supplying goods to the U.S. army.
He was seized on June 17 in Fallujah, a flashpoint city in the anti-U.S.insurgency. A Seoul commerce ministry spokeswoman said all South Koreansworking for companies in Iraq were likely to leave the country by early nextmonth.
South Korea has 670 military medics and engineers in Iraq and plans to sendanother 3,000 troops.#####