A week after the liberation of a group of South Korean Christians from a six-week hostage ordeal in Afghanistan, the head of South Korea's spy agency, the government and the church that sponsored the mission are still under fire from a press and a public who believe their nation's name has been dragged through the mud.
Rumours of a secret deal to free the hostages were confirmed on Thursday. South Korea's top spy admitted that concessions beyond what has been announced by Seoul were involved in the release of 19 Korean Christian hostages from Taleban custody in Afghanistan, but declined to give details.
'There were other things than what we have already announced, but I cannot disclose them,' Kim Bok-man, head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), told parliament on Thursday, according to the Yonhap news agency. 'It's not proper for you, intelligence committee members, to ask whether a ransom was paid. I think it is better to leave it for a while.'
Mr Kim was vague as to whether the release of Taleban prisoners was part of a deal. There has been speculation that such a deal could have been done in return for a package of South Korean aid to Afghanistan.
South Korean officials had previously said the only conditions for the liberation of the abductees were a pledge to withdraw Seoul's 200 troops from Afghanistan by year's end and to prevent Christian missionaries operating there. But there have been strong rumours of a back-door deal, and news reports from Afghanistan have quoted a Taleban spokesman as saying that a US$20 million ransom was paid.
The spy master found himself in an unusual position on Thursday: under interrogation from the National Assembly. Following national and international speculation of a secret deal for the release of the hostages, the assembly's intelligence committee questioned him, behind closed doors, about his role in the affair.