Taliban Frees 2 South Korean Women

Taliban militants in Afghanistan released two South Korean women Monday who were held hostage for weeks, along with 19 other members of their church group, a Taliban negotiator told CBS News.

Mullah Nasrullah, one of the two Taliban militants sent to negotiate with South Korean officials, said two women, both of whom were ill, were driven to Ghazni City by a local tribal elder named Haji Zahid.

Nasrullah identified the freed women as Kim Ji-na and Kim Kyung-ja. The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed their identities. Previous media reports said they were 32 and 37 years old, respectively.

They wept as they got out of the gray Toyota Corolla driven by Zahid and into two waiting Red Cross SUVs. The women said nothing to reporters at the roadside handoff location.

Nasrullah said they were taken to a U.S. military base in Ghazni for medical treatment.

A Taliban spokesman said Saturday the militants would release two sick, female hostages "soon" for the sake of good relations between the Taliban and South Korea

Nasrullah told CBS News it wasn't possibly to free the women earlier due to "technical difficulties". He said they would have been turned over on Sunday, but the primary roadway into Ghazni city was blocked by officials after a clash between police and Taliban militants.

The road blocked was the Kabul-Kandahar highway, the same route where the 23 South Koreans were abducted on July 19.

Nasrullah said there had been no talks between the Taliban and South Korean envoys who traveled to Ghazni City on Sunday or Monday, but that the direct talks would likely continue — either face-to-face or by telephone — in coming days.

Taliban militants were still holding 16 South Korean women and three men in captivity.

The Taliban decided to release these two "for the sake of good relations between the Korean people and the Taliban," said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the insurgent group.

"We are expecting the Korean people and government to force the Kabul administration and the U.S. to take a step toward releasing Taliban prisoners," Ahmadi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Ghazni Gov. Marajudin Pathan ruled out a Taliban prisoner swap.

"Our position is the same, we are not releasing (any Taliban prisoners)," Pathan told reporters.

Meanwhile, A German held hostage in Afghanistan since last month said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his suspected Taliban captors Monday that he was ill and the militants had threatened him with death.

The man identified himself to The Associated Press as Rudolf Blechschmidt and asked that the message be delivered to the German embassy and to his son, Markus. He spoke stiffly and with frequent pauses, as though reading from prepared remarks.

The conversation was the first confirmation that Blechschmidt was still alive.

Blechschmidt is one of two German engineers taken hostage on July 18 in Wardak province. He had previously been identified in German media only as Rudolf B. The other man, Ruediger Diedrich, 43, was found dead of gunshot wounds on July 21.

"I live with Taliban in the mountain. I'm in very dangerous and I'm very sick," the hostage said or read in broken English. "Taliban want to kill me."

He asked the Afghan and German governments to try to resolve the issue, saying the Taliban wanted to speak with Afghan officials in Kabul.

Afghan officials banned journalists Sunday from operating near the site where the talks on the fate of the remaining hostages were being held, one day after the two Taliban negotiators held a news conference there.

Pathan said the ban — which bars interviews, photography and videotaping — was imposed during the negotiations because the Taliban might exploit the media spotlight.

"It's because the Taliban will take advantage and show off, so we don't want to give them that chance," Pathan said. "This is a terrorist group."

Talks began Saturday between the Taliban and South Korean officials concerning the release of the hostages, members of a church group in Afghanistan to do aid work. Two male hostages have been shot dead.

In an extraordinary scene that hasn't happened in years in Afghanistan, two top Taliban leaders were surrounded by throngs of journalists Saturday as they gave an impromptu news conference outside the Afghan Red Crescent office.

The leaders, Mullah Qari Bashir and Mullah Nasrullah, traveled to the city of Ghazni after being assured safe passage by theAfghan government. Veteran reporters in Afghanistan said the Taliban leaders' news conference was the first since the fall of the hardline militants in late 2001.

Pathan said the media ban would be lifted as soon as the hostage talks are over — "maybe within the next two days." He said the ban applied only to the area around the Red Crescent office, where the talks are being held, though journalists reported that police and intelligence officials told them the ban applied to the entire province.

Mujeeb Khalwatgar, the director of the Afghanistan Press Club, criticized the ban as contrary to the country's constitution and a recently passed media law.