Korea to send Iraq troops by August, minister says

Jon · Korean Citizen Joined: Mar 19, 2004 Posts: 525

Despite increasing skepticism over the U.S.-led war in Iraq and questions about the R.O.K-U.S. alliance, the Roh government is set to deploy additional Korean troops to the ravaged Middle East country by July or August.

At a Korean-American Association breakfast meeting yesterday, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters a military fact-finding delegation will head to the Iraqi city of Irbil next week to finalize details and arrangements for the dispatch of some 3,000 Korean soldiers.

"Considering the time needed to establish base facilities, including military quarters following the delegation's completed fine-tuning mission, the actual troop deployment will take place after one or two months at most," he said.

Deployment of the Korean troops to Iraq was approved in February and initially scheduled for late April, but it has been delayed for weeks now as Seoul and Washington failed to agree on where they would be located and the timeframe.

Supporters stress that the dispatch will solidify the half-century Seoul-Washington alliance, while others oppose the U.S.-led war itself and are concerned about the heightened danger for Korean soldiers in the worsening security situation.

Ban told the breakfast meeting, billed as a session "For A Comprehensive and Dynamic ROK-US Relationship," that President Roh Moo-hyun stressed that linking a self-reliant national defense to the Pentagon's global defense posture review, or GPR, is "inappropriate."

"Korea's self-reliant defense is being done cooperatively on the basis of the R.O.K-U.S. alliance, not in exclusion of it," he said

Ban also said the government had been aware of Washington's continued GPR review and had been preparing for any possible changes.

"We will continue to apply suitable countermeasures in accordance with future changes in the alliance," he said.

The Pentagon's plan announced this week to relocate 3,600 U.S. troops from Korea to Iraq has sparked public and media criticism that Korea's alliance with the United States is on the wane.

It also raised questions on whether Washington's repositioning plans for its forces overseas will lead down the line to the complete pullout of U.S. troops from Korea.

"The government will closely cooperate with the United States so that we can be fully prepared to cope with any kind of security threat on the Korean Peninsula and clear away all security concerns," Ban said.

Charles Campbell, commander of the 8th U.S. Army, said the redeployment of American soldiers in Korea to Iraq will take place "late this summer."

Also at the breakfast meeting were U.S. Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard, Deputy Chief of Mission Mark C. Minton and Koo Pyong Hwoi, chairman of the Korean-American Association, which was launched in 1963 to promote the U.S-ROK alliance.

Regarding the Future of Alliance Policy Initiative, formulated last year between Seoul and Washington, Ban said the two allies would seek to finalize as soon as possible terms and modalities to further strengthen the alliance and relocate U.S. military bases.

(bluelle@heraldm.com)

By Choi Soung-ah