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Updated Monday, November 16, 2009 1:59 pm TWN, AP

South Korea's opposition against Afghan troop dispatch

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's main opposition party said Monday it will oppose the government's plan to send troops to Afghanistan because of unstable security conditions in the country.

South Korea said last month it intends to expand a reconstruction team now helping to rebuild Afghanistan and will dispatch police and troops to protect them. The plan is subject to approval in parliament, where the ruling conservative Grand National Party has enough seats to guarantee passage.

On Monday, the GNP's chief rival — the liberal opposition Democratic Party — decided at a meeting of top leaders to oppose the troop dispatch, party spokesman Woo Sang-ho said in a statement.

Woo said party leaders cited the "very unstable" internal situation in Afghanistan and "increasingly conspicuous" attacks, allegedly by Taliban forces, on South Koreans there.

Woo didn't say how the party would oppose the dispatch plan. The GNP has 169 seats in the 298-member single-chamber parliament, while the Democratic Party has 87 seats.

South Korea announced its troop dispatch plan late last month, about two years after it withdrew some 200 army medics and engineers from Afghanistan. The pullout, though previously planned, followed a hostage standoff in which the Taliban killed two South Koreans after demanding that Seoul immediately withdraw its troops.

South Korean officials did not say how many troops will be sent or when, or how many more reconstruction workers would be added to the current team of 25. Local media reports, however, have said the government is considering increasing the number to 130, and plans to send about 300 troops by early next year.

South Korea, a key U.S. ally, also dispatched troops to Iraq from 2003-2008, part of efforts to bolster its alliance with Washington.

President Barack Obama is considering whether to send more U.S. troops to the Central Asian country. Obama is due to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday as part of his Asian tour.

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