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The government will dispatch a senior official to Afghanistan in January on a fact-finding mission to see what Korea can do to help the U.S. war effort there. The Barack Obama administration, which will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, is expected to ask Korea for a renewed commitment in the war-torn country.
A government source said a senior Foreign Ministry official and a working-level team will arrive in Afghanistan in mid-January. They will visit Bagram, where what is billed as a Korean "reconstruction" team is currently deployed, he added.
Another government official said, "We've concluded that it's necessary to conduct on-site fact finding to see how we can contribute there in consideration of our relations with the new U.S. administration."
Korea has so far received no formal request to re-deploy troops to the lawless nation. "But we're preparing for all eventualities because it is uncertain what position the incoming Obama administration will take," he said. In this it differs from the Bush administration, which he said "understood" Korea's difficulties in committing troops to a cause which has little support in Korea.
Since it pulled the Dongui medical and Dasan engineering units out of Afghanistan last year, Korea has maintained only some 30 medical experts and vocational trainers there. The government is looking at boosting development assistance for Afghanistan, which currently amounts to about US$7 million a year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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