By NNN-Yonhap,
Seoul : South Korea’s deputy defense minister said Monday the number of troops his country sends to Afghanistan will likely be in the “several hundreds,” dismissing speculation more than a thousand could be deployed to help reconstruction efforts there.
South Korea plans to send troops to protect a group of civilians helping the Central Asian country where the U.S. is fighting an insurgency.
Some South Korean media have speculated the number could be as high as 2,000, raising criticism that the U.S. has pressured its ally to help fight what many view here as an American war.
Speaking at a parliamentary hearing, Vice Defense Minister Chang Soo-man said the troop size has yet to be finalized but is unlikely to reach a thousand.
“I don’t think it will be in the thousands. The scale will be in the several hundreds,” he said.
The Seoul government said last week after a weeklong fact-finding mission that it is considering setting up a camp for soldiers and civilian workers in a northern Afghan province.