Clinton calls Yu on new Afghan strategy

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan last week received a phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who explained Washington`s renewed strategy on Afghanistan and enlisted continued support from Korea, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young confirmed reports that Clinton made the call on Friday, and that she also called her counterparts from other key allies, as briefed by the State Department on Monday.

"The two ministers, however, did not discuss Seoul`s latest plans to send more civilian aid workers to Afghanistan, along with some hundreds of troops to protect them," said Choi Jong-hyun, the vice spokesman of the ministry.



The call for support came shortly ahead of a statement U.S. President Barack Obama is poised to issue Tuesday on the new U.S. strategy in leading the NATO war against terrorism in the Central Asian country.

"Clinton obviously could not go into the details on the new Afghan plans since a presidential message is imminent," Choi said.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also said he would not go into the specifics.

"I think she talked about the need for mostly coordinating our efforts," he said. "I`m just not going to get into numbers or increases or anything like that. A number of these calls were specifically to talk to our partners who are involved in the effort in Afghanistan and to give them not the specifics of the president`s strategy because, of course, that`s being rolled out tomorrow, but to talk in general outlines about the president`s strategy going forward in Afghanistan."

Among the ministers Clinton contacted are those from France, Poland, Canada, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark, which maintain troops in Afghanistan, the spokesman said.

While in Seoul earlier this month, Obama thanked President Lee Myung-bak for Seoul`s plans to send a Provincial Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan, aside from its 25-member medical team already there.

The Seoul government has said it was considering sending a 130-strong PRT, accompanied by about 350 troops for their protection.

The British government said Monday that it will soon send an additional 500 troops to Afghanistan to bring the number of its there to over 10,000. NATO says it will soon send another 5,000 troops.

Obama will make a long-awaited announcement Tuesday on a major increase in troop strength in Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is gaining power despite the presence of more than 100,000 multinational forces led by about 70,000 American troops.

Even though a majority of Americans oppose sending more forces, Obama is expected to announce an increase of more than 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan, short of the 40,000 recommended by U.S. military commanders.

Korea withdrew more than 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007 after 23 Korean Christian missionaries were held captive. Two of them were killed and the rest released after the Seoul government pledged to withdraw the troops by the end of that year.

Korea`s Foreign Minister Yu has said that increased aid to Afghanistan by Korea is linked to the stable deployment of 28,500 U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month urged Korea to enhance its contributions to Afghanistan.

"I see a different dynamic and logic to Korea`s international military role today," Gates said. "In the past, deployments were considered something that Korea was doing for the United States. Going forward, Korea`s international military contributions should be seen as what they are: something that is done to benefit your own security and vital national interests."

(jemmie@heraldm.com)







By Kim Ji-hyun and news reports