Kim Sun Il

The body of Kim Sun Il, a 33-year-old man who worked for a South Korean company that supplied the U.S. military, was found by the military between Baghdad and Fallujah on June 22.

"I am very sorry and deeply regretful that this tragedy happened, although all the people and the government wished and prayed for the safe return of Mr. Kim Sun Il," President Roh Moo Hyun said on television June 23.

The president condemned terrorism as a "crime against humanity" and pledged his government's "determination to deal sternly with it together with the international community."

The government had said June 22 that the remaining 22 South Koreans doing business in Iraq would be evacuated by early July.

The kidnappers on June 21 gave South Korea 24 hours to meet their demand that Korean forces stay out of Iraq or "we will send you the head of this Korean."

The government rejected the demand, standing firm with plans to dispatch 3,000 soldiers starting in August. More than 600 South Korean military medics and engineers are deployed in Iraq.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 26, 2004
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