GHAZNI, Afghanistan — Two South Korean women kidnapped by the Taliban burst into tears yesterday after being turned over to the Red Cross on a desert road where the body of one of the original 23 hostages was dumped.

The women’s release was the first breakthrough in a drama that began more than three weeks ago when a busload of Korean church volunteers was seized. A second male captive also was shot to death in late July, meaning 14 women and five men are still being held.

The handover came after two days of face-to-face talks between the Taliban and a South Korean delegation. A spokesman for the hard-line Islamic militants said the group released the women as a show of good will during negotiations that he said were going well. The spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, also reiterated the militants’ demand that Taliban prisoners be released in exchange for the remaining 19 hostages. The Afghan government has ruled out any prisoner swap.

A few hours later, a German engineer kidnapped last month said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his captors that he was ill and had been threatened with death. The man identified himself as Rudolf Blechschmidt.