By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

Some 40 lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties will submit a bill to invalidate the government plan to send additional ROK troops to Iraq on Wednesday amid growing concerns over the fate of a South Korean man kidnapped by Iraqi militants.

The legislators on Tuesday held an emergency meeting to thwart the troop dispatch plan in a bid to save the Korean hostage, Kim Sun-il.

``We will introduce the bill, requiring an immediate reconsideration of the original troop dispatch plan,’’ Rep. Sohn Bon-suk of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) told The Korea Times.

Sohn stressed that the recent abduction involving the Korean interpreter will help speed up lawmakers’ efforts to change the government’s plan to send additional troops to the war-devastated Middle Eastern nation.

All nine lawmakers of the MDP will join the anti-dispatch move, she added.

Kim Hye-kyoung, chairwoman of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP), also said that the 10-seat party will also exert all efforts to prevent the additional troop deployment.

``As the Iraqi militants hold a Korean man as hostage, we are obligated to take action to stop it,’’ Kim said.

``I will do my best to persuade lawmakers in my party to join the move to rescind the government’s plan to send troops to Iraq,’’ said Kim Won-wung of the Uri Party on his Web site.

If lawmakers bring the dispatch to a vote in the National Assembly, public opinion will further press against sending military forces to Iraq, added Kim, who leads the anti-dispatch forces in the ruling party.

A party official said about 20 Uri Party lawmakers will join the forces to submit the bill in opposition to the dispatch scheme.

Only less than a month ago, over 50 lawmakers in the ruling party openly urged the government to reconsider sending additional 3,000 troops to the war-torn country given the worsening security situation there.

However, the number decreased following party leaders’ meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun, who is pledging to go ahead with the Assembly-endorsed dispatch plan.

Meanwhile, the introduction of the bill will probably prompt other lawmakers, in particular, of the majority Uri Party, to join the anti-dispatch move as the public opinion is now quickly turning against the war in Iraq.

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr