[Column] The Importance of the Korea-US Alliance Revealed by the Afghanistan Crisis

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Last weekend, I went to the theater for the first time in over a year. It was to watch the movie 'Mogadishu'.

This film depicts the tearful escape of our diplomats and their families who were engaged in a diplomatic battle for UN membership during the outbreak of civil war in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in 1991.

While watching the movie, I suddenly thought, "If our government had made an agreement with the US government to evacuate diplomats and expatriates in emergencies back then, we wouldn't have had to endure such hardships."

Recently, as the Islamic militant group Taliban seized Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the staff of the Korean Embassy in Afghanistan had to go through the exact same situation as Mogadishu 30 years ago.

As the situation in Afghanistan rapidly deteriorated, the Korean Embassy closed its premises on the night of the 15th and evacuated its personnel to a third country in the Middle East.

Until the 13th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated, "It is not yet the stage to consider evacuation." The speed of the Taliban's advance was so fast that this judgment was reversed within two days.

The situation at that time was urgent. Ambassador Choi Tae-ho to Afghanistan suddenly left a video conference with Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, saying, "Something urgent has come up."

Shortly after returning, Ambassador Choi reported, "We received a message from an allied country to evacuate quickly." Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately ordered the evacuation.

The embassy had to evacuate urgently. During the evacuation process, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the US earlier this year was decisively helpful.

Thanks to this, our embassy staff were able to move to Kabul Airport using US military helicopters after closing the embassy.

Since Taliban armed forces controlled the city of Kabul, it was impossible to reach the airport by car. Just before takeoff, an air raid siren sounded, delaying departure momentarily, but on the night of the 15th, they safely fled to a third country in the Middle East.

Even without mentioning the safe return of the diplomats, the importance of the strong Korea-US alliance was once again demonstrated in a situation where North Korea strongly opposed the Korea-US joint military exercises, demanded the withdrawal of US troops stationed in Korea, and threatened military provocations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.