| South Korean Troops to Start Arriving in Iraq Late This Month
Chemical Warefare Experts to Be Included
By Seo Soo-min
Staff Reporter
South Korean troops assisting the U.S. war on Iraq will start arriving in the Middle East as early as late this month according to the Defense Ministry yesterday.
Following parliamentary approval on the dispatch of non-combat troops, the ministry said a team of liaison officers will visit the U.S. Central Command in Kuwait next week to find out the needs of the U.S. military.
``As the ministry has been taking preparatory steps for some time now, the first team (of military engineers and medics) can depart as early as around the end of this month,ĄŻĄŻ said a ministry official.
A 566-member battalion-level military engineering unit and a 100-member medical unit will be sent for non-combat missions in Iraq and nearby areas.
Among them, the military engineering unit will consist of army construction engineers, operators of heavy construction machineries and some 60 members of special operation forces for self-defense.
The government has also decided to include a dozen chemical warfare experts in the unit due to looming threats of chemical warfare by Iraq.
The medical unit will consist of doctors and nurses from the army and possibly from the navy and the air force, both males and females.
The Defense Ministry has seen a flood of soldiers volunteering to be sent for the mission in Iraq. The registration roster, which was closed yesterday, showed 2.7 applicants for each opening.
For the engineering unit, 2.5 volunteers showed up for each position, and for the medical unit the ratio was 3.8 volunteers for one opening. | |
