Roh links dispatch to security

The stability of the Korean Peninsula will be an essential factor in deciding whether more Korean soldiers should be dispatched to Iraq or not, President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday.
If more troops are to be sent, there should be “something predictable about the Korean Peninsula’s stability, indicated, for example, by how the United States and North Korea will enter the six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear problem,” Mr. Roh said in a meeting with journalists from Busan, Ulsan and the South Gyeongsang region.
“Under uncertain circumstances, such as the crisis that loomed in January due to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, it will be difficult to convince the people that an unconditional dispatch of our troops to Iraq is justified,” Mr. Roh said.
In addition, he stressed that the Korean military’s role in Iraq will also be key to the decision. “The issue of whether our troops will play a role of oppressing and infringing upon the sovereignty of Iraq, or they will play a role of peacekeeping to restore public order, is critical,” Mr. Roh said. “Thus, we must wait for the UN discussions.”
He added that the Iraqi people’s opinion and other Arab nations’ positions on rebuilding Iraq should also be considered.
A fact-finding team, led by the Ministry of Defense, departed for Iraq yesterday to determine whether the government should comply with the U.S. troop request. It will return on Oct. 3.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi people appear split in their opinion on the dispatch of Korean troops. When a survey asked 232 Iraqis whether they favored such a move, 42 percent, particularly those with higher education, said they would welcome Korean troops in their area. But 52 percent said they would not.
The survey may not be an accurate sampling of the Iraqi population, but remarks by the respondents provided different views about foreign troops in their region.
Hunain al Qaddo, an economist at Mosul University, said he would welcome any multinational forces, including Americans, saying they would restore public order in his town.
“More foreign occupiers are not welcome news,” said a 39-year-old taxi driver in Baghdad who was from Basra in southern Iraq, “but I won’t object to it if they can restore the public order of our country.”
The Shiite Muslims, comprising 65 percent of the Iraqi population and mostly living in Baghdad and southern Iraq, appeared to be relatively positive about more Korean troops in their country.
By contrast, many Sunni Muslims, who live mainly in central and northern Iraq, said additional foreign forces, including South Koreans, would not contribute to the restoration of peace in their country.
A professor at the Iraqi Army University in Baquba, 25 miles northeast of Baghdad, warned that the Iraqi people would regard the dispatch of Korean soldiers as demonstrating South Korea’s cooperation with U.S. forces. “Korean soldiers may become a target of the jihad” or holy war, he said.

by Kim Sung-tak, Seo Jeong-min