South Korea on Friday announced its additional support program for Afghanistan, including the dispatch of troops for a reconstruction protection mission.
Under the program, Seoul will send more than 200 soldiers and about two dozen police to the war-torn Central Asian country to safeguard South
Korea's reconstruction workers; foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told media.
The government will also expand its Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) to the country, Moon added.
Seoul made the decision in order to more actively take part in the international efforts for supporting Afghanistan's stabilization and
reconstruction operations, the spokesman said.
He noted that PRT, which will consist of civilian experts and volunteers, will participate in local efforts in economic and infrastructure
reconstruction and humanitarian assistance work.
The troops and police will only defend the country's PRT members against terror threats, and will not take part in any kind of combat
operations, he stressed.
Currently South Korea has a 25-member civilian medical team at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, and it has promised to expand its contributions by increasing reconstruction workers to at least 130 persons.
As for the composition and number of the troops to be sent to Afghanistan, and the concrete location that the South Korean troops will be
stationed, it is still under consideration, Moon said, adding that the government will send a survey team to the country next month, and based on the survey results, the government will make the final decision on the issue.
Troops are expected to be deployed early next year if the National Assembly ratified the program, a foreign ministry official was quoted by
Yonhap News Agency as saying.
South Korea's officials and politicians are at odds over the troop dispatch issue. The opposition parties, led by the main opposition
Democratic Party, firmly opposed to dispatching troops to Afghanistan.
South Korea withdrew more than 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007 after dozens of South Korean Christian missionaries were kidnapped there. Two of them were killed.