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At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador-designate to Seoul said she hopes to discuss Korea's redeployment of forces to Afghanistan with the government of President Lee Myung-bak and that this topic will be discussed during Lee's U.S. visit next week. This was Kathleen Stephens' answer to a question by a U.S. senator that Seoul was not responding to repeated requests by Washington to send troops to Afghanistan. This topic must be under serious discussion within the U.S. administration if it was publicly raised during the confirmation hearing of Stephens, who is set to begin work in Seoul this summer.
After the U.S. declared war on terrorism, the Korean government accepted Washington's request and dispatched non-combat troops to Afghanistan. The Dasan and Dongui units, composed of around 210 military engineers and medical doctors, pulled out of Afghanistan at the end of last year after completing their expected five-year, 10-month mission. But the U.S. government, with its troops mired in the Iraq quagmire, is expecting its allies to lead anti-terror operations in Afghanistan. Starting around October of last year, the U.S. has apparently asked the Korean government several times to keep its troops in Afghanistan.
It is still unknown what types of troops Washington hopes Korea will send to Afghanistan. But combat or non-combat troops, it is unreasonable for Korea to dispatch troops again just a few months after it withdrew from that country.
Already the Korean government has, at Washington's request, extended the deployment of the Zaytun Unit in Iraq. Asking Seoul to do the same thing in Afghanistan is an excessive request. At present, Korean soldiers are part of peacekeeping operations in 11 regions around the world. Among them are dispatches to dangerous combat zones, like the Dongmyeong Unit in Lebanon.
Our government promised the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan during talks with the Taliban over the release of 23 Koreans who had been abducted last year. If our government decides to redeploy troops there, then the 100 or so Koreans living in Afghanistan may once again become targets of terror or kidnappings. And if something like that happens again, then public opinion will worsen and have a negative impact of Korea-U.S. relations, which are showing signs of returning to normal. Making excessive demands that burden the other side does not help the alliance between Seoul and Washington.
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