S. Korea in search of military base in Afghanistan

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean government delegation on Tuesday ended
an unannounced visit to Afghanistan aimed at gathering information ahead of a
decision on the scale of troops to be dispatched and location of their camp
there, the foreign ministry said.

The inter-agency team's weeklong mission demonstrates the government's intent to
re-deploy troops to the war-ravaged nation within the first half of next year
despite protests from the opposition party.
The ruling Grand National Party, which holds a majority in the 299-seat National
Assembly, supports the troop dispatch plan that requires parliamentary
ratification. Seoul withdrew two units of army medics and engineers from
Afghanistan in 2007.
The ministry said the 15-member fact-finding team, led by Deputy Foreign Minister
Lee Yong-joon, met key Afghan officials including Foreign Minister R. D. Spanta,
Defense Minister A. R. Wardak, and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander of the
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, to discuss where and how Seoul
will operate its own reconstruction squad.
"On the basis of the results of the fact-finding team's visit, the government
plans to decide the details including the base location for the Provincial
Reconstruction Team (PRT), the size of the civilian, troop, and police force to
be dispatched, and the scope of their activity," the ministry said in a press
release.
Ministry insiders said the government wants the troop dispatch plan to be
ratified by the National Assembly within the year to deploy a unit there early
next year.
Late last month, South Korea said it would increase the number of civilian aid
workers in Afghanistan to at least 130 from the current 24 and operate an
independent PRT including hundreds of soldiers to protect the workers.
The announcement was welcomed by the U.S. and other allies but set the course for
a partisan struggle at home as the main opposition Democratic Party is against
Seoul's military deployment abroad irrelevant of U.N.-led peacekeeping operations
(PKO).
The liberal party's top leaders agreed at a meeting Monday to oppose the troop
dispatch plan.
"We took into consideration the fact that the purpose of the troop dispatch is
not to participate in PKO but to join multinational forces and that Afghanistan's
internal situation is very unstable. Furthermore, there are clear threats by the
Taliban against our people," the party spokesman Rep. Woo Sang-ho said.
Militants have attacked a South Korean company operating in Afghanistan three
times since last month, but no South Koreans were harmed, according to officials
here.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)