It looks like South Korea could be returning to Afghanistan, but in a civilian capacity and not a military capacity:
The United States has asked South Korea to send a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) to Afghanistan and also to dispatch a small police force to train local police, multiple diplomatic sources here said Thursday.
South Korea has only a small group of civilians involved in PRT-related work remaining in the Central Asian country, and the U.S. request is for Seoul to dispatch a full-scale team of between 200 to 300 people, according to the sources. [Yonhap]
I guess this technically means that the South Korean government won’t be breaking their agreement with the Taliban that killed two of their citizens by not deploying military forces. South Korea already has a small 30 man PRT team in the country now.
However, I am a bit ambivalent about South Korea returning to Afghanistan in any capacity after last year’s hostage saga that saw the South Korean government embarrassingly withdraw their reconstruction troops in Afghanistan and pay the Taliban millions of dollars to help fund their efforts to kill American and international troops. Why am I ambivalent you may ask? Well just think who will many Koreans blame if one of these PRT or policemen are kidnapped or killed? We already saw the answer to this question during the hostage crisis.
It appears I’m not the only one ambivalent about the dispatch of these South Korean policemen as well.
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10:35 am on April 12th, 2008 1
12:08 pm on April 12th, 2008 2
I think any chance the South Koreans had of showing the world they were a force to be recogned with, in thier contribution to the Afgan people was lost during the hostage issue, large bribes paid, and withdrawal of thier troops. It would be far better, at this time, for South Korea to pony up some additional cash for the Afgan government or outside contractors to do the job. I think they need to bury thier Afgan involvement in shame and move on to the next opportunity to show the world how the Korean people stand for justice in the world.
12:15 pm on April 12th, 2008 3
I also think you misread public reconstuction team (PRT) wrong. It would more likely be public relations team.(PRT)
3:08 pm on April 12th, 2008 4
Just let South Korea know how much money North Korea is making from Afghan opium, and they’ll be in there as fast as they flocked to Vietnam after finding out how much money Taiwan was making there.
But emotional appeals with talk of humanitarian concerns, the “alliance,” and such intangibles will get us nothing from Coreans. They follow money. Just show them rampant bribery, government corruption, Afghan women for export as wives, and massive chaebol-esque kickbacks in awarding contracts, and that will be the carrot on the stick to bring them there.
4:13 pm on April 12th, 2008 5
“But emotional appeals with talk of humanitarian concerns, the “alliance,” and such intangibles will get us nothing from Coreans.”
Brilliant!
What can Korea possibly do in Afgan? There are no Kurds to protect them. LOL
5:55 pm on April 12th, 2008 6
ROK will go back to Afghanistan and face the music. Lee is doing everything he can to show that he is nothing like his predecessor.
7:54 pm on April 12th, 2008 7
ROK police training Afgani police????
At what? Ignoring wittinesses to crimes? Setting up traffic cameras? Sleeping in patrol cars? Riding around with the emergency-lights on? Busting those that run 2 second yellow lights?
9:45 pm on April 12th, 2008 8
Nospam,
You got busted for running a 2 Second yellow light? I’ve seen people run the red after it changed for 3 seconds and the cops followed with out even yelling at them on their loud speaker.
I have some great pics of them sleeping in their patrol cars while people are doing some illegal things in their general area. To bad I can’t post them.
1:26 am on April 13th, 2008 9
I think Knickerbocker is correct and that Bak is doing his best to remedy the sins of his predecessor. Its just that it is difficult to assess Koreas current actions fairly in light of the last 10 years. Another comment (not shown for obvious reasons) had to do with one Korean girl being worth more than a million GIs. I have no problem with the animosity, but if that is the case, then the Koreans in Afganistan should not have been there in the first place, and by being there and putting themselves in harms way it endangered many troops who were there to protect the Afgans. The bribe money was enough to buy hundreds of IEDs and Taliban that would only kill innocent people. Some people may not like US GIs, but how about the hundreds of innocent Afgans killed by Taliban and IEDs. Rooh helped in killing innocent people by paying the bribe money. That would not make me feel too good.
4:39 am on April 13th, 2008 10
Gerry,
I think most people will agree that Roh was, at best, a moron. Let’s not forget that Lee was elected in a landslide.
2:51 pm on April 13th, 2008 11
In a time when the USA and NATO are looking for anyone to send more forces to Afghanistan, this request is the most reasonable thing the USA could ask of Korea at this time.
Having personally witnessed Korea’s civil affairs actions in Afghanistan, I would offer that PRT/civil affairs is one area where Korea does excel over many other armies.
8:11 pm on April 13th, 2008 12
I don’t worry whether they will be competent because compared to many other US allies Koreans are very competent in whatever they put their minds too.
I worry more about what would happen if one of these people is kidnapped or killed? Will it be another America bash-athon like we saw when the Korean contractor was killed in Iraq or when the Taliban hostage crisis happened?
10:46 am on April 14th, 2008 13
To GI Korea. If one of these people are kidnapped or killed, I would expect the South Koreans to do what they need to do and not continue to rely on others to carry thier baggage.
3:16 am on April 16th, 2008 14
3:31 am on April 17th, 2008 15
Gerry,
At this point, I would not make that assumption.
The Korean representation in Afghanistan has no combat troops, so bringing that capability into theater would be a hard sell for Lee.
But if another hostage crisis happened, then I would expect the Lee administration to at least let NATO handle it (versus Roh’s insistence on the situation being handled by Korean diplomats (read: money transfer agents).
9:36 am on April 17th, 2008 16
I think it is foolish to put Korean reconstruction teams into Afganistan without proper security, especialy in light of the hostage scenerio. South Korea either needs to stand up to its commitments(won in a landslide), or admit they cannot take care of thier own. The embarrasement from the first fiasco, would be more than humiliating in the second, if the South Koreans had to rely on NATO to pull thier butts out. Who is Lee trying to impress by not sending in security for thier own people?
9:45 pm on August 10th, 2008 17
[...] Regarding the beef trade, the US government obtained what they wanted. If he can solve issues about the dispatch of troops to Afghanistan and contribution of defense expenses during his term, he can show his success to his own people. I [...]
11:05 am on August 13th, 2008 18