Taliban militants agreed today to free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage for more than a month after Seoul agreed to end all missionary work and keep a promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

The agreement, reached in direct talks between Taliban negotiators and South Korean officials meeting in central Afghanistan, ends a hostage crisis that had exposed the growing security problems facing Afghanistan.

Relatives of the hostages in South Korea welcomed news of the impending release.

“I would like to dance,” said Cho Myung-ho, mother of 28-year-old hostage Lee Joo-yeon.

South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said from Seoul, the South Korean capital, that the deal had been reached “on the condition that South Korea withdraws troops by the end of year and South Korea suspends missionary work in Afghanistan.”

There was no word on when the captives would be released.

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