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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| South Korea Extends Iraq Troop Deployment |
| 2004-11-23 |
| EFL: South Korea's government endorsed a plan on Tuesday to extend an unpopular troop deployment in Iraq by another year in hopes that its longer mission would win more U.S. support to resolve North Korea's nuclear crisis. The government convened a meeting of Cabinet ministers, led by Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, and decided to keep the South Korean troops in Iraq until the end of next year. The government would make a formal request to the single-chamber legislature in the near future for a final approval of the government plan. In February, South Korea's National Assembly authorized its government to send 3,600 troops to Iraq on the condition that they stay there until the end of this year on a non-combat mission for relief and rehabilitation. The mission makes South Korea the largest coalition partner behind the United States and Britain. It was also the country's first overseas deployment of combat forces since the Vietnam War. But the dispatch was delayed for months against a background of growing antiwar protests at home and safety concerns in the wake of mounting violence in Iraq. It was only in late September that the main contingent of 2,800 troops arrived in the Kurdish-controlled town of Irbil in northern Iraq, just three months before their mission expires. The Defense Ministry has recently requested to extend the deployment of the troops, called the "Zayitun" Unit named after the Arabic word for "olive," for one more year. Defense officials said the mission of the Zayitun troops should be extended because it had been delayed for a long time by controversy over the original deployment of April. "If the mission were not extended, the troops would have to return home without having completed their job in Iraq," an official at the Defense Ministry told United Press International. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 That's right, send the troops or keep them at home to protect their own country! (ie: you'd be on your own)! |
| Posted by: smn 2004-11-23 10:23:52 AM |
| #1 Smart man. Good forward thinking... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-11-23 10:23:51 AM |