After arriving on a Korean Air flight, the visibly traumatized former hostages told anxious relatives and international media at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, that they were "sorry" for "causing" the hostage drama.
"We are sorry for causing pain and worry among fellow Koreans, and offer thanks to everyone who helped set us free," said ex-hostage Yoo Kyung-sik, who acted as a spokesman for the group. Gunmen of Afghanistan’s militant Taliban movement captured 23 South Koreans nearly two months ago after they had traveled to Afghanistan to do Christian volunteer work.
The Taliban fighters murdered two male hostages, 42-year-old Bae Hyun-kyu, a youth pastor at the hostages’ home church, and fellow Christian missionary, Shim Sung Min, who was 29. A few weeks later, two women were released, followed by the nineteen remaining hostages.
SEVERAL LOCATIONS
The freed hostages, who were held at several locations, have confirmed that they only learned of the killings after they were released, BosNewsLife established.
Yoo said the hostages "need time to deal with the tragic news," and asked members of the public and media to give them and their families "some distance" during an initial period of healing. The former captives headed straight to a nearby hospital, where they were to receive psychological and medical care, accompanied by their families, amid reports that the women had been abused.
"We have reports the various Taliban commanders were fighting over the women hostages," said Mirajuddin Pathan, the governor of Ghazni province in published comments. "They were abused over and over," he added, without going into details. Shortly before their arrival in South Korea, some hostages already suggested to reporters they were held in harsh conditions.
"At the beginning I had writing supplies so I kept a diary, but the Taliban kept searching us and took them away," Seo Myung-hwa, 27, said. "Fortunately I was wearing white trousers so I rolled them up and started writing on July 24. I traced back memory to record what had happened before that."
STOMACH TROUBLE
The journal noted an onset of stomach trouble on August 17, eating a porridge meal made with juice the next day, and getting a chance to wash her hair three days later. 
Other hostages
said they were being separated into small groups and shuttled about in the Afghan countryside to avoid government troops and other military forces in the country.
One Taliban member would farm by day and then grab a rifle and stand guard over hostages at night. Lyu Kyung-sik, 53, reportedly said the leader of the group’s leader, Bae Hyung-kyu, fainted when two gunmen boarded the bus as it passed through Ghazni province on July 19.
"We were in a state of panic," said Lyu, recalling the scene of the abduction as the militants threatened them with guns. Bae was later shot and killed on his 42nd birthday.
Speaking at Incheon International Airport Sunday, September 2, the older brother of the murdered Bae Hyung-ku, said the arrival of the group "marks a period of closure." He said family members delayed holding a funeral for the two victims until the remaining hostages were released. "Now the group can mourn together."
There has been confusion surrounding the negotiations that led to the release of the hostages amid consistent reports that South Korea paid up to roughly $20 million as a ransom to the Taliban.
PURCHASING ARMS
A Taliban commander earlier told the Reuters news agency the 20 million US dollars had been received and would be used to "purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks".
The South Korean government has denied that any ransom was paid, saying officials only promised to withdraw the country’s 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and halt all missionary work there.
Song Min-Soon, the South Korean foreign minister, has said the country had no choice about negotiating with the Afghan group while the lives of the 19 remaining hostages were at stake.
"We have to wish you to remember that innocent people were kidnapped and two of them were killed."
Millions of Christians had been praying for their release and the hostages’ Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, a suburb of Seoul, held prayer vigils. There has been criticism that Christian churches in some cases send untrained missionaries to dangerous places, although their church claims they were prepared and only came to Afghanistan to help those in need.
South Korean Christians have said they are eager to spread the Gospel and what they see as "the love of Jesus Christ" to all people, including Muslims. At the end of 2006, 15,000 South Korean missionaries were at work in dozens of countries around the world from China to the USA, nearly double the 8,100 abroad in 2000 and up from just 93 in 1979, according to the Korea Research Institute for Missions.
However with the South Korean government threatening to harshly punish South Korean missionaries traveling to Afghanistan, it remained unclear what the future of missions would be in that Islamic nation. (With reporting from South Korea, BosNewsLife News Center and BosNewsLife’s Eric Leijenaar. BosNewsLife Anti-Terrorism Task Force: Covering the Threat of Our Time).
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