Iraqi militants behead South Korean hostage

AN IRAQI militant group has beheaded a South Korean man it was holding hostage, the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported last night.

The channel said it had received a videotape saying Kim Sun-il had been executed.

Mr Kim, 33, who worked for a South Korean company supplying the US military in Iraq, was abducted last week.

Al-Jazeera said the video claimed the execution was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked group Monotheism and Jihad.

The South Korean foreign ministry issued a statement confirming the report.

Mr Kim's body was found by US soldiers between Baghdad and Fallujah, west of the capital, at 5.20pm Iraq time, said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil.

The South Korean embassy in Baghdad confirmed the body was Mr Kim's by studying a picture of the remains it received by e-mail, Mr Shin said.

"It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news," he added.

Mr Kim was shown in the videotape kneeling, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those issued to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The tape showed five hooded men standing behind Mr Kim, one reading a statement and gesturing with his right hand.

Another captor had a large knife slipped in his belt.

One of the masked men said the message was intended for the Korean people.

"This is what your hands have committed. Your army has not come here for the sake of Iraqis, but for cursed America."

The video as broadcast did not show Mr Kim being executed.

News of the apparent beheading reached the White House in the midst of a briefing by spokesman Scott McClellan, who said he was not aware of the report.

"That would be horrible news," Mr McClellan said.

"There simply is no justification for those kinds of atrocities that the terrorists carry out. We've seen some of the barbaric nature of the terrorists recently when it comes to an American citizen that was killed in Saudi Arabia and it is a reminder of the true nature of the terrorist."

Al-Jazeera did not say when Mr Kim was killed.

Mr Kim's kidnappers had initially threatened to kill him at sundown on Monday unless South Korea cancelled a troop deployment to Iraq.

The Seoul government rejected the demand, standing firm with plans to dispatch 3,000 soldiers starting in August.

NKTS, a South Korean security firm doing business in Iraq, told the Associated Press in Baghdad earlier yesterday that Mr Kim was still alive and that negotiations for his release continued, with the company president expected to arrive in Baghdad from Seoul by today.