Korea Dispatches Troops to Northern Iraq

The Republic of Korea and the United States agreed to choose either Erbil or Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq as the post for the additional dispatch of Korean troops on April 2.

Nam Dae-yeun, a press secretary of the Defense Ministry, in a briefing this day, announced, “Lt. General Richardo S. Sanchez, commander of U.S. and Coalition Forces in Iraq, proposed around 10 p.m. on April 1 by facsimile that three areas, including Erbil, Sulaimaniya, and a complex area which is combined with parts of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, are possible candidates for the dispatched Korean troops.”

Nam added, “We informed the U.S. forces that we’d like to deploy the Korean troops to Erbil and Sulaimaniya, and they agreed to it this morning.”

The Ministry of National Defense plans to dispatch a local investigation team, whose leader is Hwang Oe-don, a division commander of Iraqi Peace and Reconstruction Division (Zaitoon unit), as early as April 10, and will decide on the final dispatch area based on the investigation results at the end of this month.

An officer in the Defense Ministry said, “If a new dispatch area is decided, we will push to dispatch our troops quickly because the schedule has long been delayed,” and added, “Considering the transportation of the supplies, the dispatch is expected to begin in June.”

The security of Erbil and Sulaimaniya are relatively stable to the degree that American forces can deploy only 170 and 100 to each area respectively, and those areas suffered the least in war damages in Iraq. Because of this, some civil organizations and military experts pointed out, “It is not proper to dispatch all 3,700 Zaitoon troops there, and it is not suitable for the purpose to help reconstruct Iraq after the war.”

In connection with this, press secretary Nam explained, “We do not consider reducing our dispatch troops at the moment, and there is no change in the policy of our government.”

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com