KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) – Face-to-face talks between the Taliban and South Korean officials over the fate of 21 hostages will not happen unless the officials travel to Taliban territory or the U.N. guarantees the militants’ safety elsewhere, a purported spokesman said Sunday.

The spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said the militants had talked to the Korean officials “many times” over the phone the last three days but that there had been “no results.”

“We gave them two choices: either come to Taliban-controlled territory or meet us abroad,” Ahmadi said. “They accepted these options and told us, ‘We are trying to persuade the U.N. to give you a guarantee to meet us in another country.”‘

A U.N. spokesman said the international body was “fully supporting” efforts by the South Korean and Afghan governments to resolve the crisis.

Twenty-three South Koreans from a church group were kidnapped by the Taliban on July 19 while traveling from Kabul to Kandahar to work on medical and other aid projects. Two of the male hostages have been executed. Among the remaining 21 hostages, 16 are women.

The Taliban have demanded that 23 militant prisoners being held by Afghanistan and at the U.S. base at Bagram be freed in exchange for the Koreans’ lives, but the Afghan government has all but ruled out that option.

An official at the Korean Embassy in Kabul said the location of a meeting between the Koreans and the Taliban was not important.

Asked if paying a ransom is an option, he declined to comment. He spoke on condition he not be identified in line with embassy rules.

South Korea has appealed to the United States to get more involved in the negotiation process, and the Koreans are expected to be one of the topics on the agenda for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Bush when they meet at Camp David on Sunday and Monday.

Ahmadi said the Taliban have been waiting for negotiations to start and have extended many deadlines for the Koreans’ lives.

If an agreement is not reached for in-person negotiations, then the Taliban will not be responsible for “anything bad” that happens to the hostages, Ahmadi said.

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Associated Press writer Alisa Tang in Kabul contributed to this report.