S Korea likely to deploy up to 350 troops to Afghanistan

SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea said Tuesday it finalized on its Afghanistan troop deployment plan, set to deploy up to 350 troops to the Central Asian country for two and a half years as part of the U.S.-led reconstruction program.

According to a statement by the Ministry of National Defense, the South Korean government plans to send at most 350 troops to Parwan Province, north of Kabul, in order to protect the South Korean Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

"The main mission will be to guard the PRT base and escort and protect the activities of the PRT members," the ministry said, adding the troops will rotate every six months.

The deployment lies under the order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and will involve helicopters, armored vehicles and a reconnaissance drone for security purposes, the ministry said.

The defense ministry also said that South Korean troops, whose dispatch will begin on July 1, 2010, will be stationed in Afghanistan through December 31, 2012.

"As the goals of the PRT can only be met after two or three years, the troops should be stationed in the region for the same period in order to safeguard the team in a stable, continuous way," the ministry said.

The plan, which was finalized after a Cabinet meeting presided over by President Lee Myung-bak and passed by a parliamentary committee on Monday, is scheduled to be submitted to the National Assembly for a parliamentary approval.

The decision came amid a heated controversy over U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement to send 30,000 more troops next year to bring the number of American troops there to more than 100,000.

Earlier in October, following U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit to Seoul, the Seoul government announced that it is considering troop dispatch to Afghanistan in a bid to more actively take part in the international efforts for supporting Afghanistan's stabilization and reconstruction operations.

South Korea pulled out of Afghanistan in 2007 when 23 South Korean Christian missionaries were held captive by the Taliban, with two of them killed and the rest released.

Since then, Seoul has only taken the role of providing medical and vocational training by assisting the United States and only two dozen South Korean volunteers work inside the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, north of Kabul.