South Korea government approves sending of more troops in Afghanistan 2609121

Some 150 Korean aid workers and police officers have been involved in a reconstruction mission in the northern Afghan city of Charikar since mid-2010, protected by some 350 troops of the Ashena unit stationed there.

Under the revised bill, up to 70 combat troops will remain in the war-ravaged country to protect aid workers, collectively called the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), for another one-year term to the end of next year, while 289 members of the unit will be pulled out by the end of this year as scheduled.

The move came after the Seoul government agreed to extend the PRT mission by one year to the end of next year.

The remaining troops will operate in the northern Afghan province of Parwan and around the South Korean Embassy in Kabul, according to the defense ministry.

The government also approved a bill to extend the deployment of South Korean troops in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia.

The 310-member Cheonghae Unit has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden since early 2009 as part of a global effort to tackle piracy in the region, and the Akh unit, with 150 soldiers, has been in based in the eastern region of Al Ain in the UAE since 2011 tasked with training the Middle East nation's special operations forces.

The deployment of South Korean troops training special operations forces of the United Arab Emirates was also extended by a year.