A nation was holding its breath last night as the fate of the South Korean missionaries was negotiated by war-lords and tribal elders thousands of miles away. Koreans followed the news on television and the internet, trying to make sense of the confused reports emerging from Kabul.

Candlelit vigils were held in chur-ches and public buildings around the deeply religious country. In a brief televised statement President Roh Moo Hyun urged the Taleban to “send our people home quickly and safely”.

The 23 hostages are from an evangelical Christian organisation and most are female nurses and teachers in their twenties and thirties. They were seized at gunpoint last Thursday while travelling to the southern city of Kandahar from the Afghan capital.

Since the missionaries’ capture, Koreans have hotly debated whether the evangelicals – known for their risky activities in hostile countries – were right to have travelled to Afghan-istan. Many commentators believe that their actions, though well intentioned, have compromised South Korean foreign policy.

In Seoul, information on the hostage crisis has not flowed smoothly. Foreign Ministry officials have complained that the Taleban do not negotiate with a single voice, which makes progress slow and difficult. Song Min Soon, the Foreign Minister, told parliament yesterday: “The Government understands that a safe return does not necessarily coincide with a prompt release.”

Fresh in the minds of Korean evangelists is the beheading in 2004 of Kim Sun Il, a 33-year-old abducted by al-Qaeda, whose last moments were spent in a terrified plea for mercy and for South Korea to withdraw its troops from Iraq. It created widespread criticism of Seoul’s response to the crisis, and sparked internet debate among Koreans over the rights and wrongs of its citizens travelling to danger zones.

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