Govt to Send Mission on Korean Residents in Afghanistan

The government will send in early October a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan to determine whether

it is safe to allow about 100 South Korean residents to continue to stay in the war-ravaged nation, officials said Sunday.

The government banned the entry of South Koreans into the Central Asian country in the wake of a hostage crisis involving the kidnapping of 23 South Koreans in July. Two male hostages were killed and two female abductees were released before the last 19 were set free in September. In a deal with Taliban insurgents to

secure the release of the 19 hostages, the government pledged to withdraw all South Korean missionary groups.

"We are sending a fact-finding mission in early October to determine whether to allow South Korean residents to stay in Afghanistan," an official said, adding the mission will consist of officials of the ministries of foreign affairs and trade, construction and transportation, commerce, industry and energy and the National Intelligence Service.

Following the hostage crisis, the government in early August put Afghanistan on the list of travel-banned countries and ordered Korean residents there to evacuate by the end of August unless they obtained special permission.

About 100 South Koreans _ businessmen, embassy staff and the staff of non-government organizations _ currently stay in Afghanistan apart from about 200 soldiers of a medical and engineering unit, which is to pull out by the end of the year under the deal with the Taliban.