New Delhi: Two female South Koreans, Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na, return home after being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan for more than three weeks.
The Taliban had freed the two women hostages on Monday who were ill as a "goodwill gesture". Kim Kyung-ja, a 37-year-old software company employee, and Kim Ji-na, 32, an animation instructor, arrived at Incheon Airport on Friday.
Since the two women hostages were freed, there had been no further talks to release the remaining hostages.
Taliban is demanding the release of its fighters in NATO and Afghan jails while the Afghan government has refused to meet these demands.
Twenty three South Koreans were taken hostage three weeks ago with two of the hostages, both men, were later killed.
The handover came after two days of face-to-face talks between the Taliban and a South Korean delegation. Franz Rauchenstein, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said, officials were ready to host more talks at the office of the Afghan Red Crescent in Ghazni, but the two sides were talking by phone for now.
"We stand ready to play the role of neutral intermediary for the release of the next 19 hostages and we are urging the two parties to make it a short process in the interest of the hostages," Rauchenstein was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"They got medical checks, and nothing serious happened," said an embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of embassy policy.
It was likely that the women were flown to the US base at Bagram, where the South Korean military runs a hospital.
The official said South Korean delegates in Ghazni were "still maintaining negotiation channels" with the Taliban leaders but declined to give further details.
A Taliban spokesman said they released the women as a show of goodwill because negotiations were going well. Qari Yousef Ahmadi also reiterated the militants' demand that Taliban prisoners be released in exchange for the remaining 19 hostages.
Ghazni Governor Marajudin Pathan, who in the past has suggested the hostage standoff could be solved with a ransom payment, ruled out a prisoner swap.
ICRC officials waited for the Koreans on a stretch of desert road 5 miles south of the city of Ghazni. When a dark gray Toyota Corolla stopped, two women got out of the back seat and began crying at the sight of the waiting Red Cross SUVs.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
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