KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghan officials recovered the body of a German aid worker kidnapped in southern Afghanistan earlier this week, a provincial police chief said Sunday.

The body of the German was found in southern Wardak province, where two Germans and five Afghan colleagues were kidnapped on Wednesday, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hewas Mazlum.

The Taliban on Saturday said militants shot and killed the two Germans, but Afghan and German officials said intelligence indicated that one died of a heart attack and the other was still alive.

Mr. Mazlum said he did not immediately know how the German whose body was recovered was killed.

Meanwhile, a delegation of South Korean officials arrived in Kabul on Sunday, only hours before an evening deadline set by Taliban militants threatening to kill 23 Korean hostages.

A senior South Korean official said the team would negotiate with the Taliban through intermediaries. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, has said the hardline militia would release the hostages in exchange for the freedom of 23 Afghan prisoners. The militants kidnapped the Koreans on Thursday while they were riding on a bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.

The Afghan government hasn’t commented on the trade offer.

The eight-man Korean delegation plans to meet with President Karzai and Afghanistan’s foreign and interior ministers, said Sidney Serena, a political affairs officer at the Korean embassy here.

Mr. Serena said the 23 Koreans, including 18 women, work at an aid organization called the Korea Foundation in Kandahar.

Though the 23 have been reported to be Christians, Serena said the embassy “strongly denies” that they were carrying out any sort of religious activities.

A top South Korean Defense Ministry official, Kim Sung-gon, said Sunday in Seoul that the country’s 210 troops in Afghanistan have started preparations to pull out of the country by the end of the year as planned.

The Defense Ministry stressed that the process had begun well before the Taliban demanded the withdrawal of South Korean troops from the war-ravaged country.

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Associated Press reporter Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.