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Choi Tae-ho, South Korea’s ambassador to Afghanistan, talks to reporters via videoconference on Wednesday from Doha, Qatar.(Yonhap News)

It was around 11 am on Sunday that Choi Tae-ho, South Korea’s ambassador to Afghanistan, was informed by a security firm that Taliban units were only 20 minutes away from the capital of Kabul.

Choi had thought there would be a little more time since the government troops were supposed to mount a defense of the city but South Korea’s allies viewed the situation differently. They urged him to evacuate the embassy immediately.

When Choi briefed Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong about the critical developments on the ground, he was instructed to evacuate. Staff proceeded to quickly destroy sensitive documents at the embassy according to evacuation protocol.

Choi gave the press pool at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) a video interview from his current location in Doha, Qatar, at 10 am on Wednesday.

“I wasn’t able to bring any decent clothing,” Choi said, pointing to his short-sleeve shirt as he explained the situation at the time of the embassy’s evacuation.

All he could bring onto the helicopter was a bag measuring 30cm by 30cm by 20cm, barely enough to hold the essentials, let alone a suit.

When US President Joe Biden promised in April to end the US’ longest war in history by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, American allies were left with the gloomy sense that the Afghan government was living on borrowed time.

When the American troops began to pull out in early July, the Taliban ramped up their military activities as predicted.

The majority opinion in an allied conference in the second week of August was that Kabul wouldn’t fall until September. No one expected that the Afghan government’s army would simply disintegrate as it did.

After finishing preparations for the evacuation, South Korean embassy staff hurriedly relocated to an ally’s embassy located nearby. It was just five minutes away since foreign embassies were clustered together in a neighborhood of Kabul called the “green zone.”

Hundreds of people run alongside a US Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. (AP/Yonhap News)

The embassy staff hopped aboard an allied country’s military plane that flew them to the military airport.

The airport was in complete pandemonium as staff from various embassies hurried to evacuate and as Afghans sought to find a way out of the country. As South Korean embassy staff prepared to board an ally’s military plane, Choi looked after the safety of South Korean nationals still in Afghanistan.

One Korean expressed his intention to remain, saying he wanted to attend to a business he ran at the military airport.

Choi and two other embassy staff agreed to remain in Afghanistan to look after him. But the businessman soon recognized the severity of the situation and made up his mind to leave late that afternoon.

Choi had managed to line up a seat for the businessman on a military airplane that was departing on Monday, but locals who had been at the civilian airport since the evening of Sunday soon occupied the runway of the military airport.

“Crowds of people came onto the military runway and were hanging onto the airplanes,” Choi said.

Some members of the crowd were carrying firearms, and there were sporadic gunshots. Operations at the airport ground to a halt, preventing planes from taking off or landing for some time.

Around 1 am on Tuesday, American troops managed to push back the crowds and secure the runway. Choi, the remaining embassy staff, and the businessman boarded a military aircraft together at 3 am and put Afghanistan behind them.

“We all huddled together on the floor of the transport people as passengers used to do on boats. Most of the passengers were Americans, but there were also a few Afghans and people from other countries like me,” Choi said.

“Around 60% of Afghans today are young people who haven’t experienced the rule of the Taliban. They’re members of the internet era who are familiar with Western civilization, and they have a high appreciation for human rights,” the ambassador said, indicating his hope that the Taliban won’t run the country according to their past hardline Islamic fundamentalism.

Choi will continue his work as ambassador to Afghanistan from the South Korean embassy in Qatar.

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter

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