SKorea denies two hostages seriously ill

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea's foreign minister Tuesday denied claims that two of the 21 Koreans held by Afghanistan's Taliban are seriously ill.

"The health problems of two female hostages, said to be in critical condition in domestic and foreign media reports, are not serious," Song Min-Soon told reporters before attending a weekly Cabinet meeting.

"The hostages can't be perfectly healthy after nearly 20 days in captivity. In that sense, they are not healthy on the whole. There has been no symptom of any of the hostages being critically ill," said the minister.

Taliban spokesmen have described two of the women as seriously ill but given no details.
The insurgents seized 16 female and seven male Korean aid workers on July 19 while they were travelling by bus in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.

The Taliban are demanding the release of jailed insurgents in exchange for the Koreans and have killed two male captives to press their demands.
The extremist group had said it was awaiting the outcome of a meeting between US President George W. Bush and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai to see whether its demand would be met.

But the White House said Monday the two leaders had agreed no concessions would be made to the Taliban.
Song said the summit's outcome was anticipated. "The (Korean) government is making various efforts for the release of the hostages."
Asked if Korea should brace for a long-term crisis, Song said that in previous cases captives in Afghanistan had been held for an average of 35 days. But this did "not necessarily" mean the Koreans' case would drag on, he said.