I have links saved, but for some reason I never posted links here or on earlier sites, but I remember following the story closely and the feeling of horror when I read the news of the deaths:
2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_South_Korean_hostage_crisis_in_Afghanistan) (Wikipedia)
QuoteOn July 19, 2007, a group of 23 South Korean missionaries were captured and held hostage by members of the Taliban while passing through Ghazni Province of Afghanistan. The group, composed of sixteen women and seven men, was captured while traveling from Kandahar to Kabul by bus on a mission sponsored by the Saemmul Presbyterian Church. The crisis began when two local men, who the driver had allowed to board, started shooting to bring the bus to a halt. Over the next month, the hostages were kept in cellars and farmhouses and regularly moved in groups of three to four.
The Taliban killed two of the abducted South Koreans, Bae Hyeong-gyu, a 42-year-old South Korean the pastor of Saemmul Church, and Shim Seong-min, a 29-year-old South Korean man, on July 25 and 30, respectively. Later, with negotiations making progress, two women, Kim Gyeong-ja and Kim Ji-na, were released on August 13, and the remaining 19 hostages on August 29 and 30.
July 1, 2004: Slain Iraq Missionary is Mourned in South Korea (https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/01/2003177253) (Taipei Times)
QuoteThousands of South Koreans turned out yesterday for the emotional funeral of Kim Sun-il, a young interpreter who was beheaded by Islamic militants in Iraq last week. A 33-year-old Arabic interpreter and devout Christian who dreamed of missionary work in the Arab world, Kim was killed after Seoul rejected demands to pull 670 military medics and engineers out of Iraq and drop plans to send 3,000 troops there.
July 27, 2007: Spirits Sag in South Korea at Death of Hostage (https://web.archive.org/web/20170416130958/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/asia/27korea.html) (The New York Times)
QuoteFor South Koreans, this new crisis represents the cost of the aid and evangelical operations that its Christian churches conduct in some of the world's most dangerous places. In 2004, a South Korean interpreter and aspiring Christian missionary was beheaded by militants in Iraq.
Several South Korean missionaries have served time in or remain in Chinese prisons, accused of trying to convert North Korean refugees or for smuggling them to South Korea. One missionary, who was kidnapped by North Korean agents in 2000, is believed to have died in the North.
With 12,000 to 17,000 evangelists in more than 160 countries, South Korea has one of the most aggressive armies of Christian missionaries on earth. Only the United States sends out more — 46,000 by some estimates.
A conservative association of Protestant churches in South Korea has called for dispatching 100,000 missionaries by 2030. Along with those full-time missionaries, South Korean churches dispatch numerous evangelical, educational and medical missions. Saemmul Church has stressed that Mr. Bae's group was not engaged in evangelism, but was doing only relief work at hospitals and kindergartens.
Aug. 29, 2007: Korean Bishop Expresses Joy for Hostages, Sense of Humiliation for Taliban Deal (https://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=10166&size=A)
QuoteMgr Lazarus You Heung-sik, bishop of Taejŏn and chairman of Caritas Corea, talks to AsiaNews about the "dangerous precedent" set by the South Korean authorities in dealing directly with Islamic fundamentalists. People in South Korea feel joy that human lives were spared, but also humiliation about Protestant Churches, which have come under intense criticism in South Korean society.