N.A. Postpones Vote on Non-combatant Troop Dispatch

The National Assembly was supposed to put to vote a motion on the dispatch of non-combat troops to the U.S.-led war campaign against Iraq on Tuesday. Faced with strong anti-war sentiment, however, the National Assembly put off the vote.

Rhee Q-taek, floor leader of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and his counterpart of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), Chung Kyun-hwan, held an emergency meeting around 3:45 p.m. on March 25 in which they agreed to postpone the vote to collect public opinion.

In the meeting, Mr. Rhee suggested that the bill be put to a vote after President Roh Moo-hyun declares his will to support the U.S. war effort by issuing a national statement and Mr. Chung said that his party would decide on a party line the dispatch within his party.

The government-submitted motion is highly likely to be dealt with at a plenary session of the National Assembly on April 2, when the president is scheduled to address the Assembly. However, the possibility that it is put to a vote within the extraordinary session period which (until March 31) cannot be ruled out.

Before the contact between the floor leaders, the two parties held a general meeting each to discuss the bill on the dispatch of non-combat troops to the war in Iraq. However, as a lot of lawmakers are opposed to the idea calling for caution, the two parties failed to decide on their party lines. The same day, around 300 civic group members took to the streets to protest the dispatch in front of the National Assembly building.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kim Kyung-jae of the MDP said that a total of 30 lawmakers of ruling and opposition parties signed a revised bill on the dispatch of military engineers that was sponsored by him.

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com