S. Korea may send non-combat troops to Afghanistan: FM

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said
Monday that his country plans to increase the number of its civilian workers in
Afghanistan to around 130 and possibly send troops to protect them.
"The dispatch of combat troops is not being considered, but we are taking various
ideas into account, including sending police or troops who can protect Provincial
Reconstruction Team (PRT) workers," Yu told lawmakers. The government "will
decide the details through consultations with the National Assembly," he added.
Yu has been highly cautious when speaking on the possibility of sending troops to
Afghanistan, a highly sensitive issue in South Korea where anti-American and
anti-war rallies are frequent, although the country is a close ally of the United
States.
In 2007, South Korea pulled its 200-strong team of military medics and engineers
out of Afghanistan, terminating their mission. It has instead stationed about two
dozen medical staff and job trainers at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, 80km
north of Kabul, to assist the U.S. PRT efforts.
Seoul has already promised to increase the number of its civilian workers there
to around 90 by early next year, when its ongoing construction of a large-scale
hospital and a job training center at the Bagram base is scheduled for
completion.
Yu reaffirmed that South Korea will make more contributions.
"We plan to dispatch at least about 130 civilian specialists for the
reconstruction of Afghanistan," he said, without mentioning a concrete timeline.
When asked to give specifics, he only said the specialists will include medical
workers and vocational and police trainers.
Also at issue is how to guard them without the help of the U.S., he added.
"The government will soon decide which would be better -- sending the police or
troops -- through consultations with the National Assembly," he said.
South Korean officials said later that if troops are dispatched, their mission
will be confined to the protection of South Korean workers, and they will not
engage in combat.
On the possibility that some of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea will be
redeployed to Afghanistan or the Middle East, the minister said, "The
stabilization of Afghanistan is directly related to the creation of conditions
for the stable presence of United States Forces Korea (USFK)."
On a trip here last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said in a meeting with members of the USFK that the Pentagon may send some
of the U.S. troops stationed here to the other conflict areas.
"Certainly, that's something that we are looking very specifically at. And, in
fact, there have been forces that were here that went to Iraq," he said, adding
Washington and Seoul are discussing the matter.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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