Kim Sun-il 744003 224484827 2008-07-09T01:32:49Z Leaf of Silver 3377277 /* See also */ (Added wikilink to South Korean hostage crisis) {{Infobox Korean name| hangul=김선일| hanja=金鮮一<!-- , sometimes mistransliterated as 金善日 -->| rr=Gim Seon-il| mr=Kim Sŏn-il| }} <!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Hostage_kim.jpg|thumb|[[Monotheism and Jihad]] members with Kim Sun-il giving Korea 24 hours to withdraw Korean troops out of Iraq .]] --> '''Kim Sun-il''' ([[September 13]], [[1970]] &ndash; [[c.]] [[June 22]], [[2004]]) was a [[South Korea]]n [[translator]] who was kidnapped and killed by Islamic extremists in Iraq. Kim was fluent in [[Arabic language|Arabic]], holding a graduate degree in that language from [[Seoul]]'s [[Hankuk University of Foreign Studies]] in February [[2003]]. He also had degrees in [[English language|English]] and [[theology]], and had hoped to become a [[Christianity|Christian]] [[missionary]] in the [[Middle East]]. He arrived in Iraq on [[June 15]], [[2003]], working for Gana General Trading Company, a South Korean company under contract to the [[Military of the United States|United States military]]. On [[May 30]], [[2004]], he was [[kidnap]]ped in [[Fallujah]] &mdash; about 50 km (30 miles) west of [[Baghdad]] &mdash; by the [[Islamist]] group [[Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'l Jihad]] and held as a [[hostage]]. The group, which was led by [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]], killed him on or about [[June 22]] when South Korea refused to meet their demands that it cancel its plans to send 3,000 more troops to Iraq and withdraw the 660 military medics and engineers already there. (This would put South Korea behind only the [[United Kingdom]] in number of non-U.S. coalition troops in Iraq.) Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'l Jihad had initially set a [[June 21]] deadline in a videotape showing Kim pleading for his life. However, on June 22, after initial reports that the militants had given their hostage more time, [[Al Jazeera]] television reported that they had received a videotape footage of Kim being [[decapitation|decapitated]] by five men, like hostages [[Nick Berg]] and [[Ken Bigley]] in Iraq, [[Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.|Paul Johnson]] in [[Saudi Arabia]], and [[Daniel Pearl]] in [[Pakistan]]. The report was subsequently confirmed by the South Korean government. The president of Gana General Trading is said to have known about the kidnapping almost immediately, but he did not report it until after the videotape aired. He had consulted a lawyer, who argued that the situation must be dealt with without government intervention if Kim was to be saved. It is claimed that government officials had little time to react. However, there are also reports that a videotape of Kim in captivity, in which he appears calm and openly criticizes U.S. intervention in Iraq, was delivered to the [[Associated Press]] Television News offices in Baghdad at the beginning of June, and that on [[June 3]], an AP reporter in Seoul contacted the South Korean Foreign Ministry asking if they knew of a missing person with a name sounding like Kim Sun-il's. <ref><font color="gray">'''(Korean)'''</font>[http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200406/24/200406242326355309900090309031.html Joongang Daily News, June 24, 2006]</ref> ==Reaction== {{flagcountry|South Korea}} - President [[Roh Moo-Hyun]]'s National Security Council issued a statement condemning the killing. The South Korean Ministry of Information and Communication has banned the Kim Sun-il murder video and is trying to prevent it from being spread. The unedited video was available on the website Ogrish.com during the summer of 2004. {{flagcountry|United States}} - US President [[George W Bush]] condemned the killers, saying: "The free world cannot be intimidated by the brutal actions of these barbaric people." Reports and editorials in [[South Korea]]'s press reflected despair at the death of the hostage Kim Sun-il in Iraq, but also defiance towards the kidnappers. South Korean TV stations interrupted their schedules as Mr Kim's body was discovered and subsequently broadcast special rolling news programmes. "Kim Sun-il killed - body identified" was the headline in the independent daily [[Donga Ilbo]]. "Kim Sun-il ends up dead" was how the popular daily [[JoongAng Ilbo]] reported it. ==See also== * [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] * [[2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan]] * [[Human rights situation in post-Saddam Iraq]] ** [[Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.]] ** [[Shosei Koda]] ** [[Eugene Armstrong]] ** [[Jack Hensley]] ** [[Kenneth Bigley]] *[[Fabrizio Quattrocchi]] *[[List of Korea-related topics]] ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:1970 births|Kim, Sun-il]] [[Category:2004 deaths|Kim, Sun-il]] [[Category:Foreign hostages in Iraq|Kim, Sun-il]] [[Category:Deaths by decapitation]] [[Category:Filmed executions]] [[Category:South Korean people taken hostage]] [[Category:South Korean terrorism victims|Sun-il, Kim]] [[Category:Terrorism deaths in Iraq]] [[bg:Ким Сун-ил]] [[ko:김선일]] [[ms:Kim Sun-il]] [[zh:金鮮一]]