S. Korean officials to visit Afghanistan to set assistance timetable

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will dispatch a team of working-level
officials to Afghanistan in March or April before setting a timetable for
expanding its contributions to rebuilding the war-torn nation, a government
official said Friday.
He added the government has decided to increase the number of the country's
workers in Afghanistan to more than 90 from the current 24 and build a complex
that has a large hospital, a well-equipped training center and worker lodgings
inside the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, about 80km north of Kabul.
"The decision, which reflects the foreign ministry's original plan, was made
through consultations among related ministries," the official told Yonhap News
Agency on condition of anonymity.
South Korea has maintained two dozen medical staff and vocational training
experts at the Bagram base to help the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team there.
South Korea's 200-strong contingent of military medics and engineers was brought
back home in 2007 after several years of service in the central Asian nation.
"As a master plan has been worked out, the government will send a fact-finding
team which consists of related experts and officials from the Korea International
Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in March or April," he said. KOICA is a government arm
that handles South Korea's official development assistance projects.
"They will gather information needed to set a schedule for the construction of the
facilities."
Seoul has provided Afghanistan with US$66 million in aid from 2002-2008 and
pledged $30 million for 2009-2011.
"The government will use an extra budget to send more workers to Afghanistan," the
official said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon traveled to Kabul and the Bagram base last
month to determine in which areas Seoul can do more.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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