KANDAHAR, July 25: Taliban rebels in Afghanistan killed one of their 23 South Korean hostages on Wednesday, officials said, and set a “final deadline” for the government to meet demands for a prisoner swap.

Police found the bullet-riddled body of the Korean, one of a group of Christian aid workers, a few hours after the rebels said they had executed him because talks to secure the release of eight insurgent prisoners had stalled.

“We killed one of the Koreans today because the government is not being honest in talks,” Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

The police chief of the Ghazni province, where the Taliban are holding the Koreans, said the badly-wounded body was dumped in a remote area several miles from the nearest road.

“Yes, we've recovered the body. It had 10 bullet holes,” police commander Alishah Ahmadzai said.

As tensions mounted, the head of the government delegation negotiating the release of the Koreans, Waheedullah Mujadadi, said the Taliban had opened fire on him in a buffer zone between Taliban and government-controlled areas.

“I managed to escape the attack. They were trying to kidnap me as well or kill me,” he said.

The militants -- who were ousted from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces in late 2001 -- set a deadline of 2030 GMT on Wednesday for Afghan authorities to accede to their demands for the release of the jailed Taliban fighters.

“We call on the South Korean government, parliament and its people to pressure the Afghan government to accept our demands or we'll kill more hostages after the deadline passes,” Ahmadi said.

An Afghan governor and the Taliban both denied a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified government official in Seoul, that eight of the Koreans were freed on Wednesday.—AFP