Scale of Sending Additional Troops to Iraq Will Be 2,000 to 3,000 Men

To decide the characteristics, formation, and scale of the additional troops to be sent to Iraq, the government plans to dispatch the second joint survey team to the spot from the end of this month for 10 days.

Presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young announced that the National Security Council (NSC) would send a survey team, which consists of 13 members, and will be lead by the head of the Information Management Office of the NSC, Kim Man-bok, to Iraq, and the team would examine the nonmilitary aspects such as infrastructure, health, medical treatment, and public popularity, in an effort to restore and rebuild.

The second survey team consists of the officials from the NSC secretariat, the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OGPC), the Ministry of Foreign Affair and Trade (MFAT), the Ministry of National Defense (MND), the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MGAHA), the Ministry Construction & Transportation (MCT), and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The team will personally interview Iraqis and various circles of people including the transitional governing council.

Meanwhile, in connection with the scale of the additional troops, a high-ranking official of the NSC said, “The government has not yet definitively settled the policy, but considering the U.S.’s request –a “Polish Division” - it is rational that the scale of the troops will be about 2,000 to 3,000 men.”

He explained, “In the Polish Division, the military power of Poland is around 2,350 men. We also can apply the scale correspondingly to the additional troops’ scale,” and, “The scale will not exceed maximum 3,000 men.”

But another high-ranking official of the Blue House reputed, “Sending 2,000 to 3,000 men is just a personal opinion from the person who referred it,” and said, “Nothing has been decided.”

An official of the MND said, “It is like putting the cart before the horse about commenting the scale of the troops, even the characteristics and function of the troops has not yet clearly settled,” and, “There are many indications arising that the scale of the troops should be over 5,000 men because the troops are for maintaining the public order and rebuilding post war disorder in Iraq.”

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com