Seoul, South Korea ? South Korea’s deputy foreign minister said today that Seoul would not change its plan to send 3,000 soldiers to Iraq despite the recent kidnapping of a South Korean man there.

Choi Young-jin made the announcement after government officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the abduction that tested South Korea’s resolve just days after it announced plans to send 3,000 troops to assist the U.S.-led coalition.

“There is no change in the government’s spirit and position that it will send troops to Iraq to help establish peace and rebuild Iraq,” Choi said at a news conference.

The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape Sunday purportedly from al-Qaida-linked militants showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life and pleading with his government to withdraw troops from Iraq.

The kidnappers, who identified themselves as belonging to a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, gave South Korea 24 hours to meet its demand that Korean troops stay out of Iraq or “we will send you the head of this Korean.”

“Korean soldiers, please get out of here,” the man screamed in English, flailing his arms. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important.”

South Korean media identified the hostage as Kim Sun-il, 33, an employee of South Korea’s Gana General Trading, Co., a supplier for the U.S. military.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said the government would campaign for the hostage’s release.

“The government will closely work with the U.S. military command in Iraq and international religious and human rights organizations to get the Korean hostage released as soon as possible,” Ban said in Qingdao, China, where he was attending a summit of Asian foreign ministers. He was quoted by Yonhap, South Korea’s national news agency.

South Korean passengers watch a television broadcasting a South Korean worker kidnapped in Iraq at the Seoul Railway station. The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera aired the videotape purportedly from al-Qaida-linked militants early today, which showed the South Korean hostage begging for his life.

South Korea warned its people Saturday not to travel to Iraq, saying its decision to send troops there might prompt terror attacks on South Koreans. In April, seven South Korean missionaries were detained briefly by armed men in Iraq.

Seoul said Friday it will send 3,000 soldiers to the Irbil area in northern Iraq beginning in August. Some 600 South Korean military medics and engineers currently in the southern city of Nasiriyah will redeploy to Irbil.

Once the deployment is complete, South Korea will be the largest U.S. partner in the coalition after Britain.

Seoul has portrayed the dispatch as a way of strengthening its alliance with the United States, thereby winning more support from Washington for a peaceful end to a long-running dispute over North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.