MANILA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States have agreed not to use force to free Korean nationals held hostage in Afghanistan, a South Korean diplomat said after talks between the two countries in the Philippines. "They agreed that both countries will not use any kind of force," said the diplomat after a meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. They were in Manila for a regional security forum. The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Korean church volunteers south of Kabul last month and have executed two of them. The hardline Islamist guerrillas have said they will kill the rest unless captured comrades were freed.
