From Northern Iraqi City of Kirkuk to Southerly Najaf Around June

By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

Seoul and Washington have agreed to change the site where South Korean troops will be stationed from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to a safer region in the middle of the Middle Eastern country, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

One of strong candidates is Najaf, located 160 kilometers south of Baghdad and in central Iraq. Spain plans to withdraw its troops deployed there by the end of June in the aftermath of the recent terror attacks in Madrid.

The government will determine the site for ROK troops within two weeks, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon said.

Speaking in a meeting hosted by EU Chamber of Commerce in Korea (EUCCK), the minister stressed that the troop dispatch is designed to help Iraqi reconstruction and Seoul will not go back on its ``strategic’’ commitment to send troops to Iraq.

South Korea and the United States shared an understanding that a change would be inevitable to the dispatch location since the security situation has deteriorated in the northern city of Kirkuk, spokesman Brig. Gen. Nam Dae-youn said in a press briefing.

``The two sides agreed to reconsider the location so that our troops can be deployed in line with our basic principles,’’ he told reporters.

The agreement was reached in Baghdad between Lt. Gen. Kim Jang-soo, chief operations director with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Korea wants its contingent to carry out a peace and reconstruction mission, taking responsibility for a region under its own operational command. In the Baghdad talks, Seoul reportedly turned down a U.S. proposal to launch a joint clean-up operation against insurgents in Kirkuk.

Consequently, South Korea’s troop dispatch will likely be delayed at least by a month, with significant revisions to the plan.

Some 3,000 soldiers were originally due to head to Kirkuk in late April on top of the 600 medics and engineers already stationed in Nasiriyah since last year.

Nam said a new location will be decided through further discussions between Seoul and Washington, which he expected would require at least two weeks.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr