ASEAN holds minute of silent prayer for SKoreans killed in Afghanistan

MANILA (AP) - Southeast Asian foreign ministers held a silent prayer Tuesday for two South Koreans abducted and killed in Afghanistan.

At the suggestion of Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, the ministers took a moment of silence at the start of a meeting with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans riding on a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway on July 19, the largest group of foreign hostages taken in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Two have since been killed after the Afghan government failed to meet the Taliban's demand for the release of imprisoned insurgents. The body of Shim Sung-min, a 29-year-old former information technology worker, was found Tuesday morning.