Why don't they make kia rio 5 door release cables anymore ?

SOURCE: My 2003 Kia Rio Cinco back hatch latch handle is

We had the same problem.
I took out the bolts outside, then crawled into the back area of the car, and took a screw driver, and slid it along the inner hatch catch, and found the safety latch and released the hatch. Then I took the inside off, and disconnected the handle device from the inside. It was rusted, and broken. I went to Kia, and bought a new one and reinstalled, after greasing the new one up. Took me a while, but they wanted 280.00 in labor, so it was well worth it.
Just be patient and go slow. A good metric socket set will be the best thing, with a regular and phillips screw driver.
Good luck
David

SOURCE: How do you manually release the rear hatch in a

This happened to me, I removed the interior light fixture on the rear hatch and reached in to pull the connecting rod, this works for an one off opening, you will need to take the panel off once the hatch is open and repair your outer handle, our connection was broken at the handle which I repaired and it works great. Hope this helps.