South Koreans kidnapped in Yemen said safe

Three South Koreans kidnapped by tribesmen in Yemen were reported on Wednesday to be in a safe condition, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

It quoted South Korea's ambassador in Sanaa as saying on Wednesday that the kidnappers have made no requests to the South Korean Government in connection with the abduction, but they were making demands to the Yemeni government in return for the kidnapped people.

They are the wife of the first secretary of the South Korean embassy in Sanaa, their daughter, and another South Korean national.

The South Korean ambassador did not disclose the demands made by the tribesmen, but said they concerned the tribes' grievances against the Yemeni government.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.