scoone
02-13-2004, 09:23 AM
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Fri February 13, 2004 05:28 AM ET
SEOUL (*******) - South Korea's parliament approved Friday a government plan to send 3,000 troops to help with the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq.
A parliamentary official said the National Assembly passed the measure by 155 votes to 50. It followed months of debate since President Roh Moo-hyun pledged in October to send troops to help Seoul's ally, the United States.
Seven of the 212 members present in the 273-seat assembly abstained. Party leaders had negotiated passage in advance in a vote that had grown more sensitive ahead of an April 15 general election.
Seoul military officials have said they plan to send the contingent -- 1,600 engineering troops and medics and 1,400 combat soldiers to defend them -- to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in late April.
The deployment will make South Korea, which sent 675 non-combat troops to Iraq last May, the country with the third-largest contingent in Iraq behind the United States and Britain.
Earlier Friday, about 15 protesters gathered at the house of National Assembly Speaker Park Kwan-yong and tried to prevent him from going to parliament to convene the vote. They were thwarted by about 80 riot police, witnesses said.
http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XLB5CGEQPDTXKCRBAEKSFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=4353475
Fri February 13, 2004 05:28 AM ET
SEOUL (*******) - South Korea's parliament approved Friday a government plan to send 3,000 troops to help with the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq.
A parliamentary official said the National Assembly passed the measure by 155 votes to 50. It followed months of debate since President Roh Moo-hyun pledged in October to send troops to help Seoul's ally, the United States.
Seven of the 212 members present in the 273-seat assembly abstained. Party leaders had negotiated passage in advance in a vote that had grown more sensitive ahead of an April 15 general election.
Seoul military officials have said they plan to send the contingent -- 1,600 engineering troops and medics and 1,400 combat soldiers to defend them -- to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in late April.
The deployment will make South Korea, which sent 675 non-combat troops to Iraq last May, the country with the third-largest contingent in Iraq behind the United States and Britain.
Earlier Friday, about 15 protesters gathered at the house of National Assembly Speaker Park Kwan-yong and tried to prevent him from going to parliament to convene the vote. They were thwarted by about 80 riot police, witnesses said.
http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XLB5CGEQPDTXKCRBAEKSFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=4353475