Five kidnapped South Korean workers in Nigeria released

Five South Korean workers were freed unharmed on Thursday, nearly two days after they were kidnapped by militants in Nigeria, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said.

The hostages were handed over to their company, Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co., through the local government, it added. Two of the workers are with Korea Gas Corporation.

Their release followed hours of negotiations between local authorities and the kidnappers, who initially called for the Nigerian government to set free their jailed leader. But the detailed conditions of the deal remain unknown.

In the early hours of Wednesday, insurgents in speedboats, armed with rockets, attacked a gas plant on Bonny Island near Harcourt, a southern port city in the so-called Niger Delta Region, and kidnapped the five Korean workers sleeping there. Nine other Koreans at the facilities were rescued by a helicopter.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which was behind the attack, had demanded the release of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, the group's leader jailed on treason charges and denied bail a few days before, in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Earlier Thursday, however, foreign media outlets reported that MEND decided to release the hostages at the request of Asari.

South Korean officials attributed the earlier-than-expected release of the workers to the friendly relationship between the two countries.

"It is judged that the early resolution to this case is based on the friendship of the two nations' foreign ministers and close ties between South Korea and Nigeria," said Lee Joon-kyu, director general in charge of the Foreign Ministry's consular affairs bureau.

Lee asked the Nigerian government to use the case to make more efforts to protect foreign workers.

He reaffirmed Seoul's opposition to any type of terrorism, saying "terrorist acts can't be tolerated at any case."

Shortly after the reports of the kidnapping incident, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon made a call to his Nigerian counterpart Olu Adenaji to ask for cooperation in resolving it.

Adenaji promised to do his best to win the release of the hostages during the phone talks, saying his country took the case very seriously. Seoul, June 9 (Yonhap News)