Mr. Kim Sun-il Executed... His Body Identified

Mr. Kim Sun-il (34) of Gana General Trading Co,, who was kidnapped on June 17, was executed on Tuesday after his abduction five days ago.

On June 23 at 2 a.m. (Korean time), Shin Bong-kil, the spokesman of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced, "the U.S. authorities found the body of Mr. Kim in the afternoon of 22 at 10:20 p.m. (5:20 p.m. local time), somewhere between Baghdad and Falluja, 35 km away from the capital, and they reported it to the Korean Embassy."

Mr. Shin said, "Identifying the picture of the dead person sent from the U.S. authorities via e-mail, it seems that he was Mr. Kim." The MOFAT, however, did not announce when and how Mr. Kim got killed.

The MOFAT stated that the personnel of the Korean Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and Kim Chun-ho, the head of Gana Trading Co., were on their way to the site to identify the body.

Meanwhile, the Arab satellite network, Al Jazeera, reported on June 22 (Iraqi time) that Mr. Kim was executed.

Al Jazeera, reporting that it received a videotape of Mr. Kim`s execution, announced that al-Qaeda-linked group, "al-Tawhid wa`l-Jihad (Monotheism and Holy Struggle)," murdered Mr. Kim.

The National Security Council (NSC) called for the standing committee to deal with the situation, right after the execution news broke out on June 23 at 2 a.m.

The government is said to confirm again that the principle to deploy additional troops would not change, in spite of the "worst fears" of Mr. Kim`s death.

Before that, in the Tuesday afternoon, the rumor said that Mr. Kim was alive and the release negotiation was on the way; therefore, his safe return was briefly expected.

However, it is expected that the disputes on the troop dispatch to Iraq would go wild now that the Iraq militants murdered Mr. Kim because of the South Korean deployment decision.

When the news of the murder reached White House spokesman Scott McClellan, he strongly criticized that it was too horrible even to listen to, saying "killing a hostage can never be justified by any cause." Moreover, he pointed out that this incident clearly showed barbaric acts of terrorist groups.

Seung-Ryun Kim Soon-Taek Kwon srkim@donga.com maypole@donga.com