S. Korea extends deployment of troops in Afghanistan

SEOUL - South Korea's Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a plan to extend the deployment of some of its troops tasked with protecting aid workers in strife-torn Afghanistan.

The one-year extension will allow some 70 troops to remain in Parwan province by December 2013 to protect 150 reconstruction workers there, while the remaining troops of the 350-member Oshino unit will end their mission by the end of the year.

The government also approved a bill to extend the deployment of South Korean troops in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia.

A 310-member unit was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in 2009 to fight rampant piracy.

The deployment of South Korean troops training special operations forces of the United Arab Emirates was also extended by a year.