Text Fwd: S. Korea chooses location of PRT base in Afghanistan: source

* Image source: US Army War College (through Google)

* Image source: Springhar.org (through Google)

Yonhap News
2010/01/10 16:12 KST
S. Korea chooses location of PRT base in Afghanistan: source


SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has selected Charikar, the capital of the Afghan province of Parwan, as the location to station its independent Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and security troops, a government source said Sunday.

South Korea plans to send some 350 troops to Afghanistan this year to protect South Korean civilian workers there. It currently has dozens of workers in Afghanistan as part of an international PRT operation, and plans to increase the number to about 120.

"The Afghan government has recently proposed a state-owned lot on the northern outskirts of Charikar as the site of a South Korean PRT," the government source said, requesting anonymity. "The South Korean government has accepted the offer following an initial inspection by Seoul officials."

"The proposed site has a mountain in the rear and a waterway and a road in the front. The final decision will be made after a secondary inspection by South Korean military officials."

The source said the proposed PRT site, which covers about 400,000 square meters, is located about 2.5 kilometers north of Charikar. Parwan is directly north of Kabul.