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Part of Korean Ebola team to return home on Friday

November 20, 2014
(Yonhap)

Part of a South Korean advance team of government officials will return home on Friday after wrapping up their on-site surveys in Britain and Sierra Leone to prepare for South Korea’s future dispatch of medical personnel to the Ebola-hit African country. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Part of a South Korean advance team of government officials will return home on Friday after wrapping up their on-site surveys in Britain and Sierra Leone to prepare for South Korea’s future dispatch of medical personnel to the Ebola-hit African country, the foreign ministry said.

“The advance team sent to Britain and Sierra Leone for the Nov. 13-21 schedule finished on-site inspections there,” the ministry said in a joint press release with related government offices on Thursday. “Most of the members are scheduled to return home on Friday as planned.”

The team is made up of 12 officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, defense, health and welfare, and the government-affiliated Korea International Cooperation Agency. During their visits to the two countries, they examined situations at Ebola treatment facilities and safety measures for South Korean medical personnel, according to the release.

The government earlier said the Korean medical team will be stationed at the Britain-led Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) under construction in the capital city of Freetown.

Five remaining members of the advance team will return home early next week after having more talks in Britain on terms of a memorandum of understanding likely be signed between the two countries to fix details of work by the South Korean team and support from Britain, officials said.

“We will establish a concrete plan for the dispatch of the main forces based on situations at the site examined by the advance team and discussions with the British side,” a foreign ministry official said, requesting not to be named.