Assembly delays review of Afghanistan troop plan
Published: 22 Dec. 2009, 21:54
The National Assembly will delay reviewing the plan to dispatch Korean troops to Afghanistan until February next year, jeopardizing the government’s plan to begin its reconstruction mission in July.
With other pending issues on the agenda at the National Assembly, leaders from the ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party agreed late Monday that they would discuss the deployment plan next year during an extra session in February.
The GNP had pushed for the approval of the deployment proposal this year, while the DP called for more deliberation.
The Ministry of National Defense, which submitted the plan, had previously maintained that it had to be approved by the National Assembly this year so that Korea could honor its schedule to begin the mission on July 1, 2010 and “not risk losing credibility internationally by missing the date.”
Earlier this month, the ministry finalized a plan to send up to 350 troops to Afghanistan to protect Korean civilian workers on the provincial reconstruction team from July 2010 to December 2012. The ministry also budgeted 44 billion won ($37.1 million) for weapons and armored vehicles to be used in the mission. The National Assembly’s go-ahead sign is the final step necessary before construction can get under way for the base camp.
Defense Ministry officials said they need to purchase equipment and start construction work immediately to meet the July target and the postponement at the National Assembly will obviously not help.
But a government official told the JoongAng Daily that honoring that July date would have been difficult in any case, whether or not the deployment plan had been approved this year.
“We have to take into account the time it may take to secure weapons and to train civilian workers before selecting them to the PRT,” said the official, who was a member of the interagency delegation that traveled to Afghanistan in November to assess the security situation there.
“In some cases, prospective PRT members would have to be trained overseas and come back to Korea,” the official added.
He added freezing conditions in Afghanistan would more than likely put construction work on hold until March at the earliest.
The Korean military is not concerned about safety there, though. Last week it sent its own delegation to Afghanistan, and following its return Monday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Park Sung-woo said that there had been no explosions of improvised explosive devices in Parwan in the past six months and threats of attacks there “remain low on our scale.”
By Yoo Jee-ho [[email protected]]
With other pending issues on the agenda at the National Assembly, leaders from the ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party agreed late Monday that they would discuss the deployment plan next year during an extra session in February.
The GNP had pushed for the approval of the deployment proposal this year, while the DP called for more deliberation.
The Ministry of National Defense, which submitted the plan, had previously maintained that it had to be approved by the National Assembly this year so that Korea could honor its schedule to begin the mission on July 1, 2010 and “not risk losing credibility internationally by missing the date.”
Earlier this month, the ministry finalized a plan to send up to 350 troops to Afghanistan to protect Korean civilian workers on the provincial reconstruction team from July 2010 to December 2012. The ministry also budgeted 44 billion won ($37.1 million) for weapons and armored vehicles to be used in the mission. The National Assembly’s go-ahead sign is the final step necessary before construction can get under way for the base camp.
Defense Ministry officials said they need to purchase equipment and start construction work immediately to meet the July target and the postponement at the National Assembly will obviously not help.
But a government official told the JoongAng Daily that honoring that July date would have been difficult in any case, whether or not the deployment plan had been approved this year.
“We have to take into account the time it may take to secure weapons and to train civilian workers before selecting them to the PRT,” said the official, who was a member of the interagency delegation that traveled to Afghanistan in November to assess the security situation there.
“In some cases, prospective PRT members would have to be trained overseas and come back to Korea,” the official added.
He added freezing conditions in Afghanistan would more than likely put construction work on hold until March at the earliest.
The Korean military is not concerned about safety there, though. Last week it sent its own delegation to Afghanistan, and following its return Monday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Park Sung-woo said that there had been no explosions of improvised explosive devices in Parwan in the past six months and threats of attacks there “remain low on our scale.”
By Yoo Jee-ho [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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