U.S. Honors S. Korean Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

The U.S. forces in Korea on Wednesday held a memorial service for a South Korean service member killed a year ago while working on a U.S.-led peacekeeping campaign in Afghanistan.

The memorial service for the late Staff Sergeant Yoon Jang-ho was held at the U.S. base in Yongsan, Seoul, where U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Burwell B. Bell had a monument erected in honor of the South Korean last year.

Yoon was an Army sergeant at the time he was killed in a bomb attack at the main gate of a U.S. military base in Bagram, some 80 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He was posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.

South Korea pulled out all of its 200 troops from Afghanistan late last year after a group of 23 South Korean church volunteers were kidnapped by Taliban insurgents in July. Two of the kidnapped were executed while the rest were released, some after more than 40 days of captivity. The troop pullout, however, was based on a

withdrawal plan ratified earlier that year.

A separate memorial service was also held at the country's Special Warfare Command in Gwnagju, Gyeonggi province. (Yonhap)