Combat units needed in Iraq, fact finders say (South Korea)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200312/03/200312030159217709900090309031.html

An advisory panel from the National Assembly is expected to tell President Roh Moo-hyun today that the future deployment of troops to Iraq should include both combat and noncombat forces. "In actively helping the Iraqi people, South Korea will promote South Korea-Iraq relations," the panel said in its report submitted yesterday to Speaker Park Kwan-yong.

<snip>

And the five-member panel did not rule out the possibility that Iraqi insurgents would target South Korean soldiers. South Korea's first casualties of the Iraqi conflict died Sunday in an ambush north of Baghdad. The panel finalized its recommendations as the killings were reported. Members of the panel said they took the deaths into consideration in drawing their conclusions.

Representative Kang Chang-hee of the Grand National Party led the team, which also included Representative Song Young-gil of the Millennium Democratic Party, Representative Chung Jin-suk of the United Liberal Democrats and Jeon Kyong-man, a senior researcher with Korea Institute for Defense Analysis. They returned Nov. 26.
In their assessment of safety by region, the panel wrote that southern and northern parts of Iraq are generally stable. In particular, the northern communities of Kirkuk and Ninawa are hoping that South Korean troops can help with security and the maintenance of civic order.

But they noted that in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" north and west of Baghdad, terrorist attacks were on the rise. The panel stressed that Korean troops should emphasize their presence in Iraq is to strengthen South Korean-Iraqi ties rather than the Seoul-Washington alliance.
<snip>