S. Korea to send water engineers to Libya this week

SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will send a team of water engineers to Libya this week to help the strife-torn nation restore its water supply services that were sabotaged by retreating forces royal to Moammar Gadhafi, a senior official said Tuesday.
"The first batch of our technical staff will leave for Tripoli tomorrow and start work on Thursday to help the Libyan capital ease the water shortages there," the foreign ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.
The official said South Korea will soon send another team of water experts, based on the reports by the advanced team.
On the sidelines of last week's international conference in Paris on Libya's future, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril of the rebel-led National Transitional Council (NTC) asked South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan to send the water experts.
The disruption of the water supply services is one of the major challenges for rebel leaders as they tried to maintain public order in the capital. South Korean engineers built large networks of pipelines in Libya to transport underground desert water to urban areas during Gadhafi's rule.
With security conditions appeared to be improving in Tripoli, the official said that South Korea will complete reopening its embassy in the Libyan capital by the end of this week.
South Korea temporarily closed its embassy in Tripoli in late May, and most staff, including Ambassador Jo Dae-sik, were moved to a Tunisian island amid the deteriorating security conditions.
"Since Sept. 1, two of our councilors have already resumed work at the embassy in Tripoli," the official said.
Last month, South Korea officially recognized the NTC as Libya's legitimate government.