The Taliban has killed one more South Korean hostage held in Afghanistan on Monday night, a purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi revealed from an undisclosed location.

Ahmadi said the male hostage, named Song Kin-Shi, was shot dead at around 8.30pm local time since the Taliban felt the Afghan government were not approaching the talks in a serious manner, adding that the dead body was abandoned near the Ghazni-Kandahar highway.

The Taliban has repeatedly insisted that the hostages will only be released in exchange for the freeing of certain Taliban prisoners.

A total of 23 South Koreans were kidnapped by Taliban militants in central Ghazni province on July 19, with one male hostage being executed on July 25.

Family members of the 22 kidnapped South Koreans in Afghanistan react as they wait for television news about them in Seongnam, south of Seoul, July 30, 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2007)