South Korea to send up to 700 non-combatants to Iraq ( 2003-03-21 11:26) (7) South Korea on Friday decided to send up to 700 non-combatant troops to Iraq to support the US-led war, the presidential Blue House said. A meeting of cabinet ministers, presided over by President Roh Moo-Hyun, agreed to the dispatch of up to 600 construction engineers and up to 100 medical personnel to Iraq. "There is a possibility that the war might be over earlier than expected. Therefore, we are considering sending some 40 members of the medical unit operating in Afghanistan at an early date," Roh's spokeswoman Song Kyung-Hee said. She said Roh would ask for an extraordinary session of the National Assembly to sit from Monday through Wednesday to pass a motion authorizing the troop dispatch. He will also meet ruling and opposition party leaders soon to brief them on the decision and what the government is doing to minimize the negative impact of the war on the nation's security and economy, the Blue House said.
|