South Korea Paid $20m to Secure Hostages' Release, Say Taliban

The South Korean government paid Afghanistan's Taliban a ransom of more than $20 million (£10m) to secure the release of 19 missionaries held hostage since mid-July. The claim by a senior Taliban leader was made yesterday, but denied by South Korea, after the Taliban vowed to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

The hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea - where they face an uncertain reception.

The commander told Reuters news agency: 'With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks.'

The commander is on the 10-man leadership council of the Islamist Taliban movement, which is led by Mullah Mohammed Omar.

The South Koreans were all Christian missionaries. Two male hostages were killed and two others released early. The remaining hostages arrived in Dubai on a chartered UN plane overnight and were due to fly to Seoul yesterday.

The Taliban freed the hostages after Seoul agreed to pull all its nationals out of the country. They dropped their main demand that a group of prisoners held by the Afghan government be set free.

An official, who declined to be named, from South Korea's presidential Blue House denied that it made a payment, saying yesterday: 'The two conditions for the release are that we pull out our troops and stop Korean missionary work in Afghanistan by the end of the year.'