S. Korea mulling more contribution to Afghanistan: official

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is seeking ways to do more in Afghanistan
beyond its ongoing medical and job-training assistance, a senior government
official said Tuesday.
The official did not elaborate on whether future contributions could include
military support, saying that it is a matter to be decided by politicians.
"What we have done there so far is not all. We will have to do something more,"
he told reporters, requesting anonymity, in response to a Pentagon official's
comments that every nation has an "obligation" to play a bigger role in the
troubled U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.
U.S. Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell earlier told South Korean
reporters accompanying Secretary Robert Gates on his Asia trip that countries
could make more financial contributions to Afghanistan.
The South Korean official reaffirmed that the U.S. has not formally asked Seoul
to send soldiers there again. South Korea pulled its 200-strong team of military
medics and engineers out of Afghanistan in 2007.
"The principle of the U.S. is not to demand military help (from South Korea for
Afghanistan). It has constantly called for non-military help including economic
assistance, humanitarian aid, and police trainers," the official said. "But South
Korea has its own responsibility in the international community to make
contributions to match its status and national power. Troop dispatch is not a
matter to be decided at another country's request."
Joining the U.S.-led multilateral forces is an ideologically divisive and
politically volatile issue here, as shown previously when South Korea dispatched
troops to Iraq in 2004. The decision on Afghanistan is sensitive time-wise for
the Lee Myung-bak administration, whose popularity, according to some of the
latest polls, has only recently surged to over 40 percent.
"It seems that the public is not ready yet to discuss the issue in a serious and
mature manner," said Kim Hyun-wook, a researcher at the state-funded Institute of
Foreign Affairs and National Security. "The U.S. is well aware of that, so it's
presenting an alternative. Of course, the amount of the financial contributions
is another issue that will be discussed between South Korea and the U.S.
separately."
South Korea has already promised to increase the number of its civilian workers
in Afghanistan to around 100 and build a large-scale hospital and job training
center inside the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, about 80km north of Kabul. The
construction of the facilities is expected to be completed in January, according
to officials.
Seoul provided Afghanistan with US$66 million in aid between 2002 and 2008 and
pledged $30 million from 2009-2011.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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