The South Korean government Thursday was still hopeful that the Taliban will release the remaining seven hostages they have been holding hostage in Afghanistan for nearly six weeks, the president's office said, according to DPA. "Seven remaining hostages are likely to be released Thursday following the release of 12 others the previous day," said a spokesman for President Roh Moo Hyun's office in Seoul. Earlier Thursday Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi told South Korean television station KBS that the rebels intended to complete the release under a pledge the Taliban made a couple of days ago in face-to-face negotiations with South Korean officials. Once all 19 aid workers are released they will flown home this weekend via Kabul and Dubai to Seoul, the president's office said Thursday. On Wednesday, 12 hostages - 10 women and two men - were released in three separate groups in three different districts of Ghazni province. The releases came a day after negotiators for South Korea and members of the radical Islamic group said an agreement had been reached on the release of the Christian aid workers kidnapped on July 19. The South Korean government said it had agreed to withdraw its 200 soldiers from Afghanistan - which had already been decided before the kidnappings - by year's end. It said it had also promised to send no more "Christian missionaries" into the country. The Taliban said Seoul had also agreed to order all missionaries back home by Friday. A total of 23 South Koreans were kidnapped July 19 as they were driving from Kabul to Kandahar. Two men were put to death after the expiration of Taliban-set deadlines for the Afghan authorities to meet their demands, and two ill female hostages were released on August 13 in what the militants called a "goodwill gesture."
