Seoul to send Iraq-bound troops from April 2004

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Seoul to send Iraq-bound troops from April 2004

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South Korea will send some 3,000 more troops to Iraqi northern city of Kirkuk from April next year, according to an article published Tuesday on the Korea Net, official webpage of the South Korean government.

The decision was made at a Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday afternoon at the Presidential Office.

The South Korean Defense Ministry will send the troop dispatch plan, endorsed by President Roh Moo-hyun, to the National Assembly later this week.

The contingent will independently take charge of the Kirkuk area, which is the center of Iraq's oil industry. It is regarded as being safer than the so-called Sunni Triangle.

Seoul agreed to send additional troops to Iraq in this October,but in wake of growing anti-war sentiment among the South Korean people and unstability in Iraq, the South Korean government spent long time to finalize the number, dispatch date and deployment location of the troops.

And one day after a military delegation returning from the United States, which held consultations with relative US officialson details of the proposed Iraq-bound troops, the government finally announced the sending date and deployment location.

At present, 466 South Korean engineers and medics are working in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

South Korea has said the additional troops will engage in non-military operations with a focus on rehabilitation in concern of growing attacks on South Koreans and anti-South Korean sentiment there.

Earlier this month, two South Korean businessmen were killed inan ambush in Tikrit.

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