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A US army soldier stands guard as Afghans wait to flee the country through Kabul’s international airport on Monday. (AFP/Yonhap News)

Korean residents and diplomatic office employees in Afghanistan fled the country as control falls into the hands of the Taliban, an Islamist military organization.

On Sunday, the local South Korean embassy temporarily shut down, with all of its staff evacuated to another country in the Middle East.

Three embassy staffers, including Ambassador Choi Tae-ho, had remained in Afghanistan after most of the embassy’s staff evacuated, but they also left the country on Tuesday.

According to accounts Monday from the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the developments the day before as the Taliban entered Kabul and the Afghan government collapsed more or less immediately came as a surprise to the local embassy and MOFA office.

Their ally’s message calling for them to evacuate to the airport in Kabul quickly came during a videoconference presided over the previous afternoon by Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong between the office and the local embassy.

“After the meeting, [Chung] consulted with Ambassador Choi, and the decision was made to evacuate everyone who could be evacuated,” a MOFA official said.

The embassy decided to temporarily close down and evacuate all but a few key figures — including Choi — to assist the evacuation of one South Korean national still in Afghanistan. Embassy employees reportedly rushed to complete the necessary steps for the embassy’s closure, including the destruction and filing of important documents, before heading to the airport.

They were originally scheduled to depart from the Kabul airport with US military assistance on Sunday. According to the MOFA, the withdrawal route was prepared following the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding with the US government early this year for evacuation support in the event of an emergency.

Due to difficulties traveling over land, the embassy employees traveled by helicopter to a US military-controlled runway at the airport in Kabul. An air-raid siren sounded, resulting in takeoff being delayed by two hours from its scheduled time. The employees were transported to another Middle Eastern country on a US military aircraft.

“As recently as last week, US intelligence authorities were predicting that Kabul would hold out for three months after the withdrawal of US forces,” a MOFA official said, suggesting that the Taliban’s arrival in Kabul and the Afghan government’s surrender happened unexpectedly quickly.

As the US troops were beginning their withdrawal, the MOFA continued to advise South Korean nationals in Afghanistan to leave the country.

Resident workers with South Korean companies moved quickly to evacuate. One self-employed national who had hesitated initially also left the country on Tuesday, the MOFA said.

While its diplomatic office in Afghanistan has been closed, the precedents seen in Libya and Yemen suggest that the MOFA will continue to operate it temporarily from a nearby country.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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