Afghanistan’s Taliban was holding out for a neutral venue for talks with South Korea over the fate of 21 hostages they are threatening to kill.

SEOUL (Reuters) – The South Korean government has told Taliban insurgents holding 21 Koreans there is a limit to what it can do to resolve the hostage standoff that has stretched into a third week, an official said on Friday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan – The Taliban sought guarantees of safety from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan for possible hostage talks with South Korean officials in government-controlled territory, a purported spokesman for the militants said Friday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) – An Afghan governor said the Taliban had agreed to meet South Korean diplomats to discuss the fate of 21 hostages but a delegation member said no confirmation had yet been received.

MANILA (AFP) – Asia’s annual security summit opened in sombre mood Thursday, overshadowed by the plight of 21 South Korean hostages threatened with execution by their Taliban captors in Afghanistan.

South Korea and the United States agreed not to use force to free 21 Korean hostages in Afghanistan on Tuesday, but Afghan troops warned villagers of a possible offensive in the area where the captives are.

A civilian grand jury is investigating the deaths of two detainees at a U.S. jail in Afghanistan nearly 5 years ago, according to current and former service members who said they’ve testified.

A noon deadline imposed on 21 surviving South Korean hostages kidnapped by the Taliban approached Wednesday with negotiations apparently deadlocked and international concern growing.

Police at daybreak Tuesday discovered the body of a second South Korean hostage slain by the Taliban, officials said. A purported Taliban spokesman had said the hostage was killed because the Afghan government failed to release imprisoned insurgents

Efforts to save the lives of South Koreans being held by Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban militia took on new urgency Tuesday after the rebels said they had killed a second hostage.