By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

Some 20 lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties who signed a bill opposing the additional troop dispatch to Iraq on Tuesday began a sit-in at the National Assembly to press for their demands.

They urged National Assembly Speaker Kim Won-ki to independently bring the bill to the plenary session tomorrow.

The bill, though introduced late last month, has been shelved by the Assembly’s Defense Committee without being referred to the plenary session.

The legislators also called on President Roh Moo-hyun to meet them in a bid to press the head of state to drop the envisioned plan to send an additional 3,600-strong contingent to the Middle Eastern country early next month.

The anti-dispatch move came after the United States Senate Intelligence Committee reported that incorrect information was provided to the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war. In response, some South Korean lawmakers called on the U.S. to stop the war and apologize for it.

``The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, which was passed with unanimous approval, suggests that we should reconsider deploying ROK forces to Iraq,’’ a lawmaker of the Grand National Party said. ``The ROK-U.S. alliance is not supposed to be unilaterally led by the U.S.’’

The lawmakers are also considering visiting U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Thomas Hubbard to deliver a statement criticizing the U.S. for having invaded Iraq.

To draw national attention to the troop dispatch issue, the lawmakers held a discussion about ways to prevent the planned troop dispatch throughout the night.

On Saturday, Constitutional Promulgation Day, the lawmakers will submit a petition to the Constitutional Court to the effect that the troop dispatch bill violates the nation’s basic law which bans any aggressive war against other countries.

The progressive Democratic Labor Party will launch a hunger strike on the same day, while some civic groups are also urging the government to scrap the plan to send extra troops to the war-torn country.

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr