A man identified as South Korean Kim Soong Il, is seen in this image taken from an undated but recent video obtained by Al-Jazeera television station Sunday, June 20, 2004. (AP photo)

Hours after a 24-hour deadline for his life expired, Kim Sun-il, a South Korean hostage in Iraq, was "partially" confirmed alive, a South Korean official said Tuesday.

"We are receiving a lot of information through various channels, and it seems that Kim Sun-il is still alive," South Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying.

The official, requesting anonymity, said his ministry has "partially" confirmed Kim's safety, but refused to disclose further details. He declined to discuss what he meant by the confirmation being partial, the Yonhap said.

Kim Sun-il, an employee of Cana General Trading Co., a Baghdad-based foodstuff supplier for the US Army, was threatened with decapitation by his Arab captors after he was seized during a business trip in Fallujah on Thursday.

The captors, who identified themselves as al-Qaida-linked members, threatened to behead Kim unless his government withdrew within 24 hours its plan to send more troops to Iraq, in addition to 660 noncombatants already operating there.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil said it's inappropriate to discuss the hostage's safety now.

"It's a fluid situation, so I can't say anything definitely," Shin said, disclosing only that some diplomatic efforts have been made to help resolve the crisis.

The kidnapping took place a day before South Korea finalized its troop dispatch plan, and two days after another al-Qaida-linked group decapitated an American hostage in Saudi Arabia.

The 24-hour deadline, which was estimated by South Korean officials to be 1 a.m. Tuesday (1600 GMT Monday), expired without any word from the captors, who identified themselves as members of the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group, led by the al-Qaida operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

Several hundred activists stayed overnight in the center of Seoul, holding candles in support of their troubled compatriot in Iraq. They planned to continue the vigil daily until he is set free.

The activists also shouted "No troops to Iraq" and accused the government of endangering one of its innocent citizens by currying favor with Washington in its unjustified war in Iraq, the Yonhap said.

Government policymakers continued strategy meetings into the early hours of Tuesday, but appeared to have little option except to wait.

"We are making our utmost efforts, but we don't know how the outcome will turn out," Lee Jong-seok, chief of the National Security Council, said after one meeting.

A six-member government delegation, led by ambassador-at-large Chang Jae-ryong, arrived in Amman, Jordan, early Tuesday to coordinate rescue efforts, ministry officials said.

South Korea's Ambassador to Qatar Chung Moon-soo appeared in a live interview with Arab television network Al-Jazeera on Monday to call on the kidnappers to set free the Korean hostage.

"The hostage is an innocent civilian, and South Korean troops have been performing medical and reconstruction missions in Iraq,"Chung said in the interview, according to South Korean officials in Seoul.

Al-Jazeera also aired a 10-minute appeal by two South Korean ruling party legislators urging the captors to release the hostage.

"Our message was recorded on videotape in Seoul, and was sent to the Arab TV network in Qatar," Reps. Song Young-kil and Yun Ho-jung of the Uri Party said, according to party officials.

The United States condemned the hostage-taking and called for an immediate release of the Korean.

"We deplore the unjustifiable and violent threats made against this man, and hope the world will reject these sorts of acts against innocent civilians," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

In television footage, shown repeatedly in South Korea, the captors indicated that they would not compromise on their demand.

"We first demand you withdraw your forces from our lands and not send more of your forces to this land. Otherwise we will send you the head of this Korean, and it will be followed by the heads of your soldiers," one kidnapper said in Arabic.

In the same footage, the hostage begged for his life in a desperate, shrill cry.

"Korean soldiers, get out of here. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know your life is important, but my life is important," the man screamed in English while standing against a wall. He wore what looked like prison garb.

Kim is also seen in the footage sitting with his face down in front of three masked gunmen as one of them, flanked by rifle-toting colleagues, issues an ultimatum in Arabic while gesturing emphatically with his right hand.