S.Korea to offer $1 mln in humanitarian aid to quake-hit Afghanistan

Seoul: South Korea plans to provide $1 million in humanitarian assistance to victims of an earthquake in Afghanistan that killed 1,000 people, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck early on Wednesday about 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Kabul in arid mountains dotted with small settlements near the border with Pakistan.

The quake jolted Afghanistan yesterday shortly after 01:30 am as people slept. Hundreds of houses were destroyed by the event.

It is Afghanistan’s deadliest quake in two decades.

In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.

It is to be noted that large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.