Kim Sun-il Killed

Kim Sun-il, the South Korean being held hostage by an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group, has been killed, reports Yahoo news.

The Korean government, which negotiated for Kim's release, is standing firm:

In a dispatch from Baghdad, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an "informed source" as saying that negotiations with the kidnappers collapsed over the South Korean government's refusal to drop its plan to send troops.

"As a condition for starting negotiations for Kim's release, the kidnappers demanded that South Korea announce that it would retract its troop dispatch plan," the source was quoted as saying. "This was a condition the South Korean government could not accept. As the talks bogged down, the kidnappers apparently resorted to an extreme measure."

Whole story here. As with the Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl murders, I think it's more likely than not that such heinous acts will actually intensify military resolve in Iraq, rather than weaken it.