South Korean Assembly Endorses Troop Dispatch to Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 03, 2003

South Korean Assembly Endorses Troop Dispatch to Iraq

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South Korean National Assembly on Wednesday (April 2) approved the dispatch of 700 non-combatant troops in support of the US-led war in Iraq, voting 179 to 68 in favour of the motion with nine abstentions.

"The government motion to send troops to Iraq has passed parliament," declared National Assembly speaker Park Kwan-Yong following the vote.

The twice delayed vote took place after President Roh Moo-Hyun urged members in a speech to the National Assembly earlier Wednesday to approve the motion in an effort to promote ties with the United States that he said would improve hopes for a peaceful settlement of the nuclear crisis with North Korea.

With the National Assembly having passed the bill on sending noncombat troops to the U.S. war in Iraq, South Korea officially joined the list of 18 countries worldwide sending troops, combat or noncombat, to the military operations.

While the complexities of modern warfare makes it difficult to gauge the size of one country's military assistance compared to others, South Korea comes up some 5th in terms of the volume of troops to be sent to Iraq and nearby areas.

Britain, Australia and Poland are three countries that have promised to send combat troops to Iraq, a number far short of the 32 countries that dispatched combat units during the Gulf War in 1991.

Among the rest of the 46 nations listed as supporting the U.S. war in Iraq, 15 countries including South Korea have shown willingness to supply noncombat support.

Spain leads the countries sending noncombat support with some 1,100 troops, divided into two teams protecting maritime transportation routes and providing aerial defense of southern Turkey, respectively.

With its 600 military engineers and 100 medics, South Korea follows Spain. After the parliamentary approval, the first group could be sent to Iraq as soon as early May.

Japan, while it did not disclose the number of soldiers to be dispatched to the Middle East under its new anti-terrorism law, would send some 500 troops if it sends one Congo-class Aegis destroyer and one tanker ship as planned.

Except for the Netherlands, which sent some 370 troops manning three Patriot missile systems to Turkey already, most of the European nations sending the noncombat troops, such as Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovakia, will be contributing medical and chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) warfare specialists.

Source: Agencies

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