Kim Kyung-ja, 37, and Kim Ji-na, 32, who were freed Monday, August 13, were reportedly told
only when they started their long journey home that the two men had been shot dead, including the group’s leader Bae Hyun-kyu, was a youth pastor at the hostages’ home church, the Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang.

The two women. "did not know until after they were freed that two other hostages were killed," an unidentified government official who accompanied them told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. "They learned of the two deaths only after they began heading for home August 16. They were shocked and traumatized at the news, and were lost for words for a while. They wept for half an hour," the official said.

The women were part of a Christian volunteer group kidnapped last month by Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

WOMEN APOLOGISE

Speaking briefly to reporters, after landing at Incheon airport west of Seoul, Kyung-ja said she was "sorry for causing so much concern" for the people. "I hope all the remaining hostages return home at the earliest possible date."

Gi-na, added : "I only hope all the remaining people will be immediately freed." However negotiations are reportedly difficult as the Taliban demand the release of Taliban fighters being held in Afghan prisons. South Korean officials say they do not have the authority to make that happen.

The Afghan and United States governments have agreed they will make no concessions, arguing it will only inspire more hostage-taking. However, there has also been South Korean criticism of the hostages themselves, who traveled to Afghanistan in defiance of a South Korean government ban.

Pastor Bang Young-kyun of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church expressed mixed feelings about the outrage. "We are very sorry for the whole nation to be in this situation, but some of the criticisms of us have been too harsh and unfair," he said in published remarks. (With reporting from South Korea and Afghanistan).