韩国官员与人质进行接触

South Korean officials have made their first contact with one of the 21 hostages kidnapped by Taliban insurgents more than two weeks ago, an official in Seoul said on Monday, but there have been no signs of progress.

"There was a telephone conversation with one hostage Saturday afternoon," said a South Korean official on condition of anonymity. The official declined to give further details, citing a potential risk to the safety of the hostages in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have killed two of their captives sent by a Christian church in suburban Seoul to do relief work and threatened to kill the remaining 21 if the Afghan government fails to release rebel prisoners.

Yonhap news agency said it had made contact with two women hostages through a source in Afghanistan over the weekend. The hostages spoke briefly by telephone.

In one call, the captive said the hostages had been separated into several groups and two Koreans were seriously ill.

In the other, the captive said: "We are all sick and want to meet our families again at home...the Taliban point guns at us and threaten to kill us if the Korean government does not accept their demands," Yonhap reported.

Kabul has refused to free jailed Taliban militants, saying that would encourage more kidnappings.

Afghan doctors delivered medicine on Sunday for the hostages, almost all of whom are young women.

The South Korean government is under intense domestic pressure to secure the release of the hostages, but Seoul has told the insurgents there is a limit to what it can do because it has no power to free prisoners in Afghan jails.

A delegation of South Korean officials was in Ghazni province, where the Koreans were abducted, seeking face-to-face talks with the kidnappers. But there was no agreement yet on where to meet.

The hostage stand-off is likely to cast a shadow over two days of security talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President George W. Bush due to begin at the U.S. presidential retreat, Camp David, later on Monday.

Several South Korean politicians have called on the United States to help resolve the crisis.

首尔的一名官员于周一表示，韩国官员已和21名在两周前被塔利班叛乱份子绑架的人质中的1名人质进行了第一次接触，但没有迹象表明此次接触取得了进步。 “在周六下午，韩国官员和一名人质通过电话进行了一次对话，” 一名不愿意透露姓名的韩国官员表示。官方拒绝给出更详尽的信息，理由是：对阿富汗的认知存在潜在危险。这些人质是由首尔郊区的一座教堂派出作救济工作的。塔利班武装份子已经杀害了其中的两名，并威胁杀害剩余的21名人质，如果阿富汗政府不释放叛乱囚犯。 Yonhap新闻社透露，在本周末，他们通过一种方法已和在阿富汗的两名女人只进行了联系。他们通过电话与人质进行了简要的对话。在一个电话中，一个被囚者说，人质被分成了几组，有两名韩国人病情十分严重。另一名人质在另一个电话中说：“我们都生病了，并希望能回家同家人再次见面...塔利班武装份子用枪指着我们，威胁要杀我们，如果韩国政府不接受他们的条件的话。” Yonhap报道。阿政府拒绝释放塔利班囚犯，声称那会助长更多的绑架事件。周日，阿富汗医生给人质们送去了药品，人质绝大部分为年轻女性。韩国政府受到了国内强烈要求释放人质的压力，但韩国政府已告诉塔利班武装份子称自己所能做的是有限的，没有权力释放阿富汗的囚犯。韩国官员的一个代表团在加兹尼省（人质绑架的地方），寻求与绑架者面对面对话的机会。但是对于在哪会面仍没有达成一致。此次人质事件有可能会给美国总统布什与阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊之间的两天的安全对话蒙上阴影。此次对话定于周一在美国总统疗养地戴维营进行。一些韩国政客已呼吁美国帮助解决危机。