Korean embassy officials' wife kidnapped in Yemen
Yemen, Politics, 1/8/1998

A Yemeni security official on Wednesday said that three South Koreans were kidnapped in Sanaa by armed men, affiliated with a Yemeni tribe.

The security official said that armed-men from al-Hada tribe had kidnapped the wife of the first secretary in the embassy of Southern Korea in Sanaa, her three-year old daughter and an accompanying businessman and held them as hostages in al-Ahmas district, south of the capital, Sanaa.

The official continued that some 130 Yemeni soldiers have redeployed in the region and cordoned off the kidnappers, stressing that security men will spare no efforts to free the hostages.

It added that armed men from the same al-Hada tribe on October 1997 held four Russian citizens for 20 days to bargain with the Yemeni government to execute four Yemenis accused of raping a child from the tribe.

The Bahrain Tribune today quoted a South Korean Foreign Ministry official as saying that the Yemeni government had entered into negotiations with the tribesmen to obtain the hostages' release.

This the first kidnapping incident reported in Yemen in the new year whereas 30 foreigners were kidnapped in Yemen during 1997 but were released unharmed.

Previous Stories:
  Rape of a child leads to US and Russian hostages   (11/17/1997)
  Failed attempt to kidnap Qatar's ambassador to Yemen   (11/1/1997)
  Yemeni tribesmen release Briton, take American   (10/30/1997)

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