Korean Troop Dispatch Motion Advances

The Korean government convened an emergency cabinet meeting presided by President Roh Moo-hyun March 21 at Cheong Wa Dae and passed a motion calling for the sending of up to 600 troops from an engineering battalion and up to 100 members of a medical unit to Iraq to support the U.S.-led military campaign.

The dispatched troops are expected to stay in Iraq from April 1 to December 31. The government is now considering dispatching 40 medics from a medical unit operating in Afghanistan to Iraq in accordance with its judgment that there is a possibility the on-going military campaign will end earlier than expected.

In the afternoon of March 21, the government passed the government troop dispatch motion at a parliamentary defense committee meeting and is planning to convene an emergency plenary session to hold a floor vote on the bill at the National Assembly on March 25.

On the same day, Rep. Lee Kyu-taek and Rep. Chung Kyun-whan, floor leaders of the Grand National Party and the Millennium Democratic Party, held a telephone conversation meeting and agreed to call for a special session in the National Assembly from March 24 to March 30 to discuss emergency measures against the Iraqi war. And they decided to hold the National Assembly’s plenary session on March 25 to pass the motion authorizing the dispatch of Korean noncombatant forces to Iraq. The National Assembly tentatively decided to allow the leader from a negotiation group to make a speech in parliament and hold a government interpellation session in the scheduled parliamentary special session. Detailed procedures are expected to be determined at a floor leader meeting slated for March 24.

Meanwhile, President Roh the same day evening met with three political parties’ leaders of GNP’s Acting Chairman Park Hee-tae, MDP Chairman Chung Dae-chul, and the United Liberal Democrats’ Chairman Kim Jong-pil and National Assembly Chairman Park Kwan-young over dinner at Chung Wa Dae and asked them to work together to cope with an emergency situation in a bipartisan manner.

Jeong-Hun Kim Min-Hyuk Park jnghn@donga.com mhpark@donga.com