Militants Capture South Korean Civilian in Iraq
 Hostage Footage: South Korean Kim Soong Il, 20 June 2004 (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera via APTN)
20 June 2004
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by Anai Rhoads
VerianaMedia.org - A militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released a videotape to the Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera Sunday, showing an Asian male pleading for his life.
The radical group, who is going by the name "Monotheism and Jihad", is giving the South Korean government 24 hours to remove the its troops from Iraq or the group "will send the head of this Korean."
The English-speaking hostage was identified as 33 year-old Kim Soong Il. The man was seen frantically speaking to the camera, pleading, "Korean soldiers, please get out of here! (Iraq). Please, get out of here! I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important."
 21 June 2004. Anti-U.S. rally near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea
A statement, spoken in Arabic, was released by the group saying, "Our message to the South Korean government and the Korean people: We first demand you withdraw your forces from our land and do not send more of your forces to this land. Otherwise, we will send to you the head of this Korean, and we will follow it with the heads of your other soldiers."
It is said the man was taken in or around the Fallujah area on 17 June, a day before South Korea announced plans to send more troops to Iraq.
Kim Soong Il came to work in Iraq as an employee of the South Korean company, Arab Trading.
UPDATE: An Arabic speaking man, Mohamed Obedi, negotiated with the kidnappers Monday evening.
"Obedi is meeting kidnappers today to discuss terms of release and Kim is confirmed to be safe," the director of a South Korean security organisation, Choi Seung-kap, told the Yonhap news agency.
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