Kim Sun-il killed in Iraq

The awful details are here. According to another article, also at the Chosunilbo, Kim Sun-il was executed as soon as it became clear that the South Korean government was not prepared to negotiate with the kidnappers over the deployment of troops to Iraq:

A source familiar with events on the ground in Iraq said, "I know that the group that kidnapped Kim presented certain conditions to start negotiations to free the hostage... I know this wasn't a question of money, but the cancellation of plans to send troops to Iraq as initially presented on al-Jazeera TV."

The source said, "The kidnappers have been, from the very beginning, a political organization uninterested in money, and I know that they hung preconditions on the talks that didn't involve money, but said that if the Korean government talks about withdrawing plans to send troops, negotiations could begin... These were conditions the Korean government could not accept, and accordingly, as soon as it appeared negotiations would go nowhere, the group made an extreme choice."