Image broadcast by the Arab news station Al-Jazeera shows a sitting prisoner, identified as Kim Sun-Il of South Korea with three masked, armed men, who threatened to kill him. Photo by AFP
Islamic militants in Iraq threatened to execute a South Korean hostage within 24 hours.
A video message called on South Korea to withdraw its armed forces from Iraq, three days after it said it would increase its troops there.
The video was broadcast on the Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera. The two-minute tape showed the hostage - Kim Sun-il, a 33-year-old translator working for a company that supplies the US army - surrounded by armed men wearing masks. The tape said that the 24-hour deadline would expire at sunset on Monday.
Also today after a meeting the South Korean government firmly stated that it would go ahead with its plan to send 3,000 troops to help rebuild Iraq. Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin told reporters after a meeting of President Roh Moo-hyun's National Security Council that the government would do its best to seek the release of 33-year-old businessman.