After the pro-government Uri Party won Thursday's parliamentary polls with majority seats, the Iraq troop dispatch plan emerged as one of post-election's top topics on Friday.

Thursday's election injected reform power to the new parliament which will be kicked off on June 1.

The Uri Party, which widely is viewed as reforming group won 152 seats of the total 299 seats. While the Democratic Labor Party(DLP), which is labeled as somewhat "left-leaning" power, historically became the third largest group in the new assembly by gaining 10 seats.

Rightly after the results of the election fixed, social attention quickly shifted to Seoul's promise to send some more 3,000 troops to Iraq.

DLP leader Kwon Young-ghil, in a news conference earlier in the day, urged the government to cancel the plan to dispatch troops to Iraq. "We will present a bill to cancel the troop dispatch plan assoon as the 17th National Assembly convenes on June 1 if the withdrawal is not agreed upon by then," he said.

The DLP has long demanded the government maintain a more independent posture in its US policy.

The downfallen Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) also demanded the government to scrape the plan in wake of the serious situationin Iraq.

But the DLP and MDP are minor groups in the new assembly, holding 19 seats aggregately.

Local and foreign media also doubted if the Uri Party, which advocated reform in all fields, would shift from its previous stance of continuing the troop dispatch.

A foreign news agency quoted a member of the Uri Party, Chung Sye-kyun, as saying on Friday "If the situation deteriorates seriously, we might have to think about it again."

But when asked for confirmation of the news, Director General of International Affairs Bureau of the Uri Party Cho Beckhee told Xinhua that the article is inaccurate, for Chung Sye-kyun is not official of the party. In the article, it said Chung is "policy chief" of the party.

"Chung is the Chairman of the Policy Committee of our party, but he is not senior official or representative of the party," said Cho, indicating what Chung has said is not the official position of the party.

"Our party's position is we will continue to support the decision of the government," underscored Cho, adding the party will discuss the situation in Iraq after an inspection team returns from there on April 19.

During the election campaign time, two group of nine South Korean civilians were captured by Iraqi insurgents. Although they were released eventually, local demands of halting the troop sending plan grew much stronger.

The biggest opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and pro-government Uri Party , however, shared the similar stance over theIraq-bound troop dispatch issue, claiming the plan has already been approved by the outgoing parliament.

They also underscored the US-South Korean 50-year-old alliance and that Seoul must keep its promise for it is a commitment to international community.

Although South Korean government officials, such as Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Defense Minister Kwan Yong-kil and Prime Minister Goh Kun made clear on several occasions that South Korea will pursue the plan as schedule, local concern and various hypothesis came out.

To ease the concern, South Korean Prime Minister and Acting President Goh Kun said to visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday that Seoul government will abide by the promise to send troops despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

Cheney's arrival came amid the every-four year parliamentary polls.

Kim Sung-chul, Deputy Spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, also told Xinhua firmly there is "no change" in the troop dispatch plan.

Source: Xinhua