Korean Troops Dispatched to Sulaimaniyah

The Ministry of Defense has reportedly announced that it will deploy South Korean troops to Iraq’s northern region of Sulaimaniyah at the request of the U.S government.

“The U.S. proposed to send our troops to either Irbil or Sulaimaniyah. We have informally decided to dispatch our troops to Sulaimaniyah, for it proved to be safer than Irbil,” a Defense Ministry official said on Sunday.

At first, the Defense Ministry was leaning toward Irbil, given that it has good commercial infrastructure, including a road, an airport useful for military operations, but the Ministry later changed its mind due to tough criticism from cabinet officials worried about the safety of South Korean forces, the official said.

According to the government analysis, Irbil has been increasingly a danger spot both ethnically and politically because of its proximity to oil fields. On the other hand, Sulaimaniyah is a rural area in higher ground and relatively less dangerous in terms of terror threats.

The Ministry of Defense is said to send its on-site inspection team to Iraq in order to examine the current situation surrounding Sulaimaniyah and Irbil next Friday.

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com