After a 10 hour flight via Korean Air, First Class (Pic below. Heck, the Saemmul Church is paying for their airfare, and the church probably considers them as “heroes”, and you don’t want your “heroes” coming home in Coach), the 19 hostages arrived at Inchon International Airport at 6:35am today, finally ending the hostage crisis.
At a news conference held after clearing immigration and customs, the hostages released the following statement via their representative, Mr. You Kyung Sik;
We went there to share our love. We apologize to the people for creating this anxiety, and to the government for this burden. We express our gratitude to the people of Korea.
We will do the outmost to live our lives as expected by the people. We express our grief for our revered Rev. Bae and loving Mr. Shim who couldn’t be with us here today.
This is a good place for us to get down on our knees in apology, but because of the 40 day hardship and the news of the murders of Rev. Bae and Mr. Shim, we are in a state of shock. After we have rested and recovered, we will give our story to the people.
After the press conference, they were met by a bunch of clapping Korean Protestants holding placards bearing quotes from the Bible and proclaiming “Brothers and Sisters, you have done nothing wrong. Do not hold your heads in shame.” However one man tried to throw eggs at them, but was quickly stopped by police.
The reaction from ordinary Korean is unsympathetic to say the least. Considering the above scenes, which IMO borders on arrogance and showmanship (Come on guys, you spent one day in a hotel in Dubai, and couldn’t find the time to shave, trying to prove something here with the beards?), I’m not surprised.
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“One Taliban commander earlier told the Reuters news agency the cash had been received and would be used to “purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks”.
The source, reportedly on the 10-man leadership council of the group, said: “We got more than $20m from them [the Seoul government].
“The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had.”"
20 million buys a lot of suicide bombers, suffering, and death. Are not the hostages and Korean government now responsible for all the suffering and death that money causes? How could the former hostages help make up for such a bad decision? How can the Korean government ever pull up its fallen international standing?
Joke’s on the Taliban… that $20m was printed in Pyongyang.
#1 - Don’t blame the hostages. They had no say in the matter of how their government dealt with the problem. The blame must be laid squarely at the feet of Roh Moo-hyun and his pathetic, incompetent ship of fools administration.
#2 - If only!
You’re absolutely right that blame for the $20 million ransom can’t be laid on the hostages.
I just used this same phrase “Ship of Fools” (should’ve trademarked it!) to describe Roh’s administration over at Korea Law Blog, describing their handling of “foreign investment promotion”. These guys can’t leave soon enough. There’s almost nothing they can’t louse up.
Sparkling Korea: Hub of Capitulation and Appeasement.
Show us a terrorist thug, and we’ll show you a spineless government sticking its self-lubing ass up in the air while drawing a map to $20 million for its sodomizer ($500 million if you can pass the uri nara blood test.)
Congratulations Korea on your new title of International Bitch. Apparently not content with merely propping up a murderous dictator on the Korean Peninsula, you’ve now decided to spread the Korean Wave of Terrorist Support worldwide. Just a guess here, but from the initial reactions of other countries so far to your Taliban Fund Drive Telethon 2007, this Wave isn’t going to be received with open arms.
Then again, who the fuck cares how anyone else receives it, because Koreans don’t have to deal with the aftermath of a strengthened Taliban. Korea got what Korea wants so fuck the rest of you and the big fucking mess that you now have to clean up.
P.S. A quick thanks to those commenters who actually believed (and actually made public that belief) for half a mili-second that no ransom had been paid. That was high-quality comedy reading.
You had the king of extortionists dealing with the king of bribery, and some of you were dense enough to think that equation equalled no ransom paid. Boggles the mind and makes one wonder what kind of dipshit planet you’ve been living on.
Don’t blame the hostages. They had no say in the matter of how their government dealt with the problem
The main problem is them going there in the first place. No hostage crisis, no ransom.
Actually, I’m surprised it wasn’t more than 20 million, knowing how hopeless the Uri Party gang are as negotiators.
I wonder at the difference in difficulty level in stopping an egg thrower and a somebody throwing a bucket of cow shit.
Hmmm….
#7 - I can’t help thinking that this line of reasoning is anti-religious at its core. Had the hostages been the Korean chapter of Doctors Without Borders and not a church group, I seriously doubt there’d be such a chorus of victim blamers. Whether you agree with their motivation for being there is utterly irrelevant. Got it? The terrorists are the ones who committed a crime for kidnapping them. Good grief, you people are as dense as you are intolerant.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the hostages did not force the Korean government to deal with the Taliban as legitimate actors by directly negotiating with them. The hostages did not force the Korean government to pay millions of dollars to terrorists. Korea has a capable military. Lacking the will to use it, they also have allies who were willing to take action on their behalf—but they ruled this out too! Instead, they took the low road and gave legitimacy and funding to terrorists.
Quit blaming the victims and point the finger where it really belongs: Roh Moo-hyun!
As a Canadian, I can’t express how pissed off I am at the Koreans. Free riders. They’ve done it for decades in the economic/business sphere, and now they’re doing it in the international/political sphere. We have troops on the ground in that country. And whether you agree with their presence there or not, Korea has just funded the people who will kill my people.
Ship of fools doesn’t even come close to describing the roh admin but don’t think the grass will get greener in 2008.
The Goat nails it: When motivated, Korean police can stop a lone guy from throwing an egg at Korean hostages coming home from Afghanistan.
But somehow batteries of riot police assembled to protect supermarkets from protestors can’t stop a few angry farmers (and their entourage of photographers) from carrying a bucket of dung into the store and flinging it on US beef.
Try thinking a little harder. That line of reasoning is anti-stupidity. While it’s obvious you enjoy bathing yourself in the victimhood of religious intolerance, it’s bullshit.
Had the hostages been the Korean chapter of Doctors Without Borders, they wouldn’t have been parading around in a luxury bus in the middle of the day singing songs for Jeebus. They would have taken the precautions that Doctors Without Borders always takes in war zones, which would have prevented them from being kidnapped in the first place.
Their behavior is entirely relevant, and their behavior while inside the country was irresponsible, ignorant, and absolutely stupid. Their motivation for being there led directly to their reckless behavior. Got it?
Right, and the polar bear at the zoo is to blame for biting off the leg of a dumbfuck tourist that sticks his leg inside the cage. But that tourist is still a dumbfuck who decided to flirt with danger, and suffered the consequences. There was a conscious choice made by these people to place themselves in harm’s way, and they suffered the consequences.
It’s called responsibility for your actions, look into it sometime.
And you are as eager to blind yourself to the responsibility of your fellow “believers” for putting themselves in harm’s way as you are ignorant.
Thank you for proving my point, ihbb.
Your comments at #6 were spot on, by the way.
To expand: I have no beef with those who blame them for the predicament they got themselves into. But plenty of idiots are also blaming them for the government’s bend-and-spread tactics. That’s what I was taking issue with, and your profanity-laced rant nicely illustrated my point about intolerance.
So again, thanks!
By the way, ihbb, groups from the Red Cross and other non-religious NGOs have been taken hostage in Iraq and elsewhere. So your contention that their religious activities are what got them kidnapped is utter bullshit.
Loosen that grip on your wedding tackle, man, and let some blood flow back into your brain. It’s obviously needed there.
Ut videam,
You seem to be throwing around the word “intolerance” quite a lot. What do you call a group of Christians who go to another country with the express purpose of re-educating the local natives about the correct religion to follow?
Me finks the Taliban are Lying! They originally demanded $500,000 per person.
Doesn’t add up to $20mill.
Stupidity Layer #1: Anyone not a soldier, for any reason, going to Afghanistan.
Stupidity Layer #2: Anyone going to Afghanistan, and completely disregarding their own security while ignoring the very real threats.
Stupidity Layer #3: Any Christians going to Afghanistan, a country well-known for executing Christians for fun.
Even if you go overboard and consider #3 to be “anti-religous,” — which it clearly is not, but rather just the reality of the situation there — that still leaves two solid layers of stupidity that have absolutely nothing to do with their religion.
You claimed that #7’s reasoning was based on “anti-religious” thinking, and that’s completely false and ridiculous. The primary criticism is for their flagrant disregard of government warnings and common sense with regard to injecting themselves into a war zone without security. The anti-religious stuff is just a bonus add-on for people that despise their motivations IN ADDITION.
While the hostages didn’t do the capitulating to terrorists themselves, they created the situation and laid the groundwork for their own government to do so. A government well known for its recent track record of the exact same kind of capitulation to similar terrorists in Pyeongyang.
And is there any evidence that the hostages actually opposed the appeasement that saved their lives? Do you honestly think the hostages were in favor of a hardline non-negotiation stand or military action? Of course they supported the payoffs…it saved their damn lives!
No, they didn’t make the decision or deliver the ransom themselves, but the hostages did everything else to ensure that it was ultimately delivered, and certainly deserve some of the blame for the end result, along with Roh and his band of pussies.
Just out of curiosity, Ut videam, how much blame do ascribe to the missionaries for the crisis?
Yes, and cops wearing bullet-proof vests have been killed by gunfire too.
But the fact is, groups that take their mission and their own security seriously are far less likely to be victims than those that are on an Afghan MT vacation, laughing at warning signs at the airport.
How many photos can you show me of Red Cross workers standing in front of signs that warn of the dangers of the country they’re about to enter, mocking them and making light of the danger?
Do I even need to link to the famous photo of several in this group doing exactly that?
THAT is the difference.
#17 - Um, I call it “sharing their faith.” How is that intolerant? They’re not forcing anyone to accept their views. The fact that you would suggest that doing so is intolerant shows what little tolerance you have for their views.
#20 - I’m extremely critical of them for disregarding government warnings to go on what amounted to a junket—not a serious aid or missionary trip. Though it now appears that they were in fact sold out by their bus driver, their security and travel arrangements were clearly woefully lacking.
That being said, the Taliban are criminal thugs. Murderers and kidnappers. Their actions are unjustifiable. So the lion’s share of the blame goes to them.
And the Roh administration receives sole blame for the handling of the crisis. The hostages had no control over it.
#21 - Point well taken.
Yeah, it was probably a calculated move not to shave.
Hello Mister Butcher how are you!
shame that isn’t it wat happen to those poor people?
Is that really first class?? Looks more like business to me.
At least one of those guys was sporting a goatee before the ordeal. Maybe they just like the unkempt, quasi Arab look.
I fully support egging these people, btw. They have brought shame and dishonor to the country. They deserve to be publicly flogged.
MONEY is the only true god… and it’s not an invisible god either!
Blue Balls is spot on.
What the Korean government could have done if they had a shred of testicular fortitude (besides not allowing some of their dangerously stupid citizens to prance around willy-nilly in a war zone) would be to appear to give the Taliban what they agreed to, pull the hostages out, and then completely re-nig on the concessions. They should up their military presence in Afghanistan and re-double their efforts to killing every last Taliban in sight and NEVER ALLOW A KOREAN CIVILIAN TO ENTER AFGANISTAN AGAIN!! They should “flip the script” as us Yanks say, stop being an international bitch and make the world a better place through appropriate violence. Get a grip on your civilian population.
Honoring agreements with terrorists? Are they nuts? You should honor agreements with nation-states, not with terrorist organizations who murder innocent civilizations. The Korean government doesn’t get it. They seem hell bent on hemorrhaging their value to their allies and losing their place in the international community. This will bring them closer toward isolation in a time in their history when they may face the very real possibility of needing valued allies.
So Korean foreign policy must be as follows:
1. Screw your allies, even though the service members from 19 other nations died so you can be free when you needed help
2. Kim Jong Il is a nice guy that farts sunshine. He really loves you even though he is a heartless psycho
3. The US / allies in Afganistan don’t deserve any recipricoation or assistance in ridding the world of the bastards that murdered your people
Thanks Korea for being such a good global pal.
We all saw how Korean police respond differently in shit- vs. egg-hurling incidents. Still, I don’t think it’s as sinister a difference as some believe it to be. Really, it’s just a policy decision.
See, the government just feels that the spread of fecal e. coli isn’t that big of a deal - what they really fear is an outbreak of salmonella. Or avian flu. Basically, anything bird-related. Cows: not such a worry.
#7, hoju_salam,
Cases of self defense aside, people can only be blamed for what they did wrong, not the re-actions of others based on ones deed. Were someone to go to prison and “force” his family to bride the judge to let him out, the blame for the bribe would fall on the family, not the person who committed the initial crime. ..and yes, I am comparing paying ransom money to terrorist to paying a bribe.
So in short “no hostage crisis, no ransom” fails in that a hostage crisis doesn’t necessarily denote ransom, as the Korean government could have done the right thing and not paid it.
Fault for the ransom lays squarely on the Korean Government’s shoulders.
Why are they flying first class?
That doesn’t make any sense.
Well it is actually business class, I can tell because the damn things don’t lie flat except on Virgin airlines. It makes sense because coach tickets were likely not available on such short notice. But you are talking about dumb ass Roh, after spending 20 million you might as well spend a little more? Remember, liberals love to spend taxpayer money.
#34
Actually, it’s church elders spending parishioner money… But yeah… they love to do that.
That’s business class guys. The First Class seats, especially on long haul flights, are way swankier.
I wonder if they sent the Taleban a box of kimchi wrapped in a pink cloth with the ransom money?
“The main problem is them going there in the first place. No hostage crisis, no ransom.”
hoju_saram, remember these words the next time you have a car accident or someone accuses you of something in Korea.
There’s no government warning regarding going to South Korea, as opposed to Afghanistan. But then again, maybe there should be…
Well, even for a bunch of brain-addled Christians, I guess that plastic buckets are a better variant than plastic bags.
iheartblueballs: please link the airport picture. The link I used before is now invalid.
Blueballs & Griego:
If you guys are so ginned up to fight the good fight, Why aren’t you two serving in Iraq?
They WERE ginned up to fight the good fight, but understandably not anymore. That’s thanks to the SURGE provided to the Taleban by your Uncle Roh. The “good fight” just got much more dangerous for ihbb and griego. Notice the American flags next to their names? That means that if they enlist they won’t be installing toilets, they’ll be fighting against newly rearmed Taleban soldiers. Also, as US soldiers fighting the “good fight,” they’ll be there next year too, and not intimidated and running home to their motherland’s teet.