S.Korea to replace noncombatants working in Iraq

More than 600 South Korean military engineers and medics will leave for southern Iraq this week to replace a unit operating there on a humanitarian mission, said the military on Monday.

A total of 660 noncombatants are due to leave for Nasiriyah on April 21 and 28 for a six-month rotation, army spokesman Col. Ha Du-chul said in a press briefing.

The troops, the third batch, are to replace a 463-member unit which is to return home later this month, Ha said.

The new troops will later move to northern Iraq to join 3,000 South Korean troops to be deployed to one of two Kurdish autonomous regions -- Sulaimaniyah and Irbil -- both in northern Iraq, the spokesman said.

Seoul had said it would deploy 3,600 troops, including the 660 troops destined for Nasiriyah, to northern Iraq by June, despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

Moreover, a South Korean survey team returned home after conducting 10 days of on-the-spot inspections of the two Iraqi cities on Monday.

South Korea previously had planned to deploy the 3,600 troops in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk under an independent operational command. The mission would make South Korea the biggest US coalition partner in Iraq after Britain.

The Kirkuk deployment plan, however, was canceled due to a disagreement with the United States.

The troop dispatch plan is unpopular among South Koreans. Some say the dispatch will solidify the half-century Seoul-Washington alliance, while other argue the US-led war in Iraq is unjustified and voice concerns about possible South Korean casualties.

South Korea has already dispatched two separate batches of hundreds of army engineers and medics to southern Iraq.

From: http://english.eastday.com/epublish/gb/paper1/1243
/class000100003/hwz191430.htm