SEOUL Dec 1 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATES W...

SEOUL Dec 1 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES WITH FOREIGN MINISTER'S REMARKS)

southern Korea reiterated Monday its commitment to sending more throngs to help U.S.-led coalition forces rebuild Iraq, despite the killing of sum of two units South Korean engineers in an ambush in Iraq forward Sunday.

''The issue of dispatching bodys would not be affected according to the incident,'' Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry Yoon Young Kwan said at a pres conference

Yoon said southward Korea remains unchanged in its position of sending more crowds to Iraq, even if consultations with the United States and obtaining parliamentary approval through the whole extent of the issue would have to follow

The pair Koreans, who were electricians for a southerly Korean company contracted to a U firm, were discharge at around 2 p.m. while riding in a car to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit.

brace other Koreans were wounded in the attack and taken to a U hospital in Iraq for treatment.

southern Korea convened a National Security Council meeting earlier Monday to discuss the deaths of southern Korean workers.

President Roh Moo Hyun utter sentence againsted the attack against the toward the south Korean civilians as an ''intolerably inhumane action.''

In a meeting of his senior staff at the desponding House presidential office, Roh squeeze outed condolences to the bereaved families and ordered thorough degrees be taken to protect southern Koreans working in Iraq.

''We have signifyed worries about terror attacks and our position is not to tolerate any like attacks,'' Roh said.

The death of the southern Korean workers stunned the land the first South Korean casualties since the US-l invasion of Iraq in March.

At Monday's pres interview Yoon said U.S. President George W Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell propounded condolences on the deaths of the sum of two units South Koreans.

The couple identified by Yonhap News Agency as Kim Man Soo 46 and Kwak Kyung Hae, 61 and the pair wounded, identified as Lee Sang Won and Im Dae Shik, were going to Tikrit to build a power transmission tower at the time of the attack, acting southerly Korean Ambassador to Iraq Sohn Se Joo told Yonhap by way of telephone.

The attack forward the South Koreans followed the killing Saturday of couple Japanese diplomats on the same highway.

The incidents are seen as attempts according to Iraq insurgents to intimidate U allies and discourage their participation in postwar reconstruction.

Roh committed his region in October to dispatching additional crowds to help the U.S. forces rebuild the war-ravaged Iraq.

however Roh has not yet finalized the dispatch, because it is politically extremely sensitive, particularly amid the worsening security situation in Iraq.

Earlier National Security Advisor Ra Jong Il said Monday southward Korea will not link its decision forward more troops for Iraq to the Sunday attack forward the civilians.

toward the south Korea plans to send about 3000 soldiers to Iraq to help reconstruction efforts, in addition to several hundr noncombat bands who have been deployed there since May.

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