Text Fwd: Korea Expected to Send Up To 500 Troops to Afghanistan

Korea Times
12-06-2009 18:00
Korea Expected to Send Up To 500 Troops to Afghanistan
By Jung Sung-ki, Staff Reporter

The top U.S. diplomat said South Korea would send 500 troops to Afghanistan as part of 7,000 reinforcements from 25 non-U.S. countries.

The number mentioned by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Dec. 4 is larger than that pledged by the government.

The Seoul government has said it would dispatch between 300 and 350 security forces to accompany less than 100 civilian reconstruction workers to the war-torn Central Asian nation to help U.S. and NATO forces there.

Clinton told NATO that Afghanistan was "a crucial test for the most successful military alliance in history," according to the online edition of the U.K.-based Times, Saturday.

The grand total of reinforcements of the 30,000 U.S. soldiers was made more respectable by 1,000 troops from Georgia and 500 from South Korea, it said.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary general, also said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels Friday that South Korea will deliver 400 troops, still more than the figure pledged by the administration.

Rasmussen said troop contributors will include Britain, Poland, Italy and the Czech Republic. Georgia, a country that wants to join NATO, has promised nearly 1,000 soldiers, and another non-NATO ally, South Korea, will deliver around 400 troops, he said.

Won Tae-jae, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said he believes the figures would be rough assessments of their own, not based on Korea's official notification.

"Including military police, we're considering deploying a force of 300-350 to Afghanistan," Won said in a telephone interview. He said the U.S. and NATO might have come up with the combined number of Korean troops and civil reconstruction workers to be sent to Afghanistan.

The Seoul government is considering sending up to 100 civilian aid workers to Afghanistan to increase its contribution to the NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

Last week, a senior foreign ministry official said, "The number of civilian workers joining the PRT will be set at 75, while the troops who will be dispatched to protect these workers will be set at just above 300."

The foreign ministry had said earlier that it would send up to 130 PRT members.

"The final size will be decided after an on-site inspection by a team from the Ministry of National Defense in the coming weeks," Won said.

War-weary lawmakers and progressive civic activists oppose the troop redeployment to Afghanistan, arguing it will make South Korea a major target for international terrorism. Proponents say South Korea should contribute more to peace and security around the world in line with its upgraded global profile.

According to reports, Britain will provide 1,200 soldiers, with 500 new troops, and 700 who were sent to help with the Afghan election remaining in the country. Italy and Poland made the next most substantial offers, with 1,000 and 600, respectively, but France said that it was unlikely to send frontline soldiers.

The number of foreign forces from the 44-country International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will not be more than 140,000, although more training staff are needed for the Afghan Army and police.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr


* Reference article

Rick Rozoff
U.S., NATO War In Afghanistan: Antecedents And Precedents
Stop NATO
December 5, 2009