S. Korea to give US$500 mln in aid for Afghan transition
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, April 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will donate an additional US$500 million to help war-torn Afghanistan prepare to take over battlefield command from NATO-led forces, the foreign ministry said Friday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced in March the first phase of a transition of security responsibilities from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the country's military and police. The process is set to begin in July for completion in 2014.
South Korea stationed a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in the northern Afghan province of Parwan last year, aiming to strengthen the provincial government's administrative capabilities and offer medical services as well as vocational and police training. It has donated about $180 million toward reconstruction efforts.
South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin announced the additional aid at an ISAF meeting in Berlin on Thursday (local time), according to the ministry.
"Member nations agreed that it is urgent to strengthen the Afghan military and police and provide a base for sustainable economic and social development in order to successfully carry out the transfer of security responsibilities from the ISAF to the Afghan military and police," it said in a press release.
"Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin expressed our government's active will to participate in such international efforts and announced a plan to give $500 million over the next five years starting this year."
The increase comes partly in response to international calls for South Korea to raise contributions, a ministry official told reporters earlier on the customary condition of anonymity. The United States has donated some $37 billion while Japan has given more than $3 billion and Canada more than $1.2 billion.
"The government decided that our contributions should match our country's international status and economic size," the official said, citing South Korea's hosting last year of a summit among the Group of 20 major economies.
Security conditions in Afghanistan have continued to be unstable. South Korea's PRT base came under rocket attack five times this year for reasons that are still unclear. No casualties were reported, but each successive incident raised fears about the possibility of future attacks.
"An investigation is still under way to determine who was behind the attacks and what caused them, but our understanding is that they were linked to former Afghan security personnel who were apparently disgruntled after losing their jobs guarding the base," another ministry official told Yonhap News Agency by phone, asking for anonymity.
"The investigation is taking longer than it would otherwise because of the local instability," he said, adding that he has not ruled out other possibilities for the source of the attacks, including the chance of a targeted attack by the Taliban.
South Korea currently has some 90 aid workers and police officers at the base, along with some 270 troops for protection.
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