S. Korea to make on-site survey of Afghanistan for its future role

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to send a senior government official
to Afghanistan next month to seek ways of expanding its contributions there, a
foreign ministry official said Wednesday.

The dispatch is aimed at preparing for the incoming U.S. administration's
possible request for its allies to do more in the troubled campaign to stabilize
post-war Afghanistan, the official added on condition of anonymity.
President-elect Barack Obama has said he views Afghanistan as the most important
battlefield in the global fight against terrorism.
"A fact-finding team led by a ranking foreign ministry official will visit
Afghanistan in mid-January," the official said.
South Korea withdrew about 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan at
the end of last year, ending their six-year mission just months after 23 South
Korean church workers were kidnapped by the Taliban. Two of the hostages were
executed, while the rest were released following Seoul's promise to withdraw its
troops from the country by year's end as scheduled. A South Korean soldier was
also killed in a terrorist bombing in February of last year in Bagram, about 80km
north of Kabul.
To compensate for the troop pullout, South Korea has maintained a civilian-led
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), composed of about two dozen medical staff
and vocational training experts in the region.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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