A video reportedly showing several kidnapped South Korean hostages being held by insurgents in Afghanistan has been broadcast on Al Jazeera television.
It comes just hours after the insurgents announced the killing of one of the hostages.
At least seven women wearing head scarves appeared in the footage next to men in Afghan robes, apparently militants.
The face of one Asian man also wearing traditional Afghan robes was shown, but it was not clear if he was a hostage or an insurgent.
The women appeared to be unharmed in the short, unstable video filmed by an amateur.
Earlier, a Taliban spokesman had said a South Korean man had been shot dead, just as talks to free the hostages resumed.
'We shot dead a male captive because the (Afghan) government did not listen to our demands,' spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone.
It is not clear how this will affect talks between Taliban kidnappers and Afghan negotiators which resumed today despite two rebel deadlines expiring.
The Taliban had extended its 'final' deadline at the request of Afghan mediators, but insisted the release of Taliban prisoners was the only way to settle the crisis.
The government has said that all options are under deliberation.
The Taliban seized the Korean Christians, most of them women, 11 days ago from a bus in Ghazni province to the southwest of Kabul and killed the leader of the group on Wednesday after an earlier deadline passed.
Yesterday, the Taliban ruled out further talks after they said government negotiators demanded the unconditional release of the hostages and a senior Afghan official said that force might be used to rescue them if talks failed.
The Afghan government had wanted the Taliban to first release the 18 women hostages, but the insurgents demanded the government release its prisoners first, leading to deadlock.
President Hamid Karzai has remained silent throughout the hostage ordeal, except for condemning the abduction, the largest by the Taliban since US-led forces overthrew the movement's radical Islamic government in 2001.
The abduction of the Koreans came a day after two German aid workers and their five Afghan colleagues were seized by Taliban in neighbouring Wardak province.
One of the Germans has been found dead from gunshot wounds.
