SEOUL Oct 18 Kyodo southerly Kor...

SEOUL Oct 18 Kyodo

southerly Korea decided Saturday to depute additional troops to help maintain security in and rebuild Iraq, chief presidential spokesman Yoon Tai Young said.

''The (South Korean) restraint decided at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) Saturday to dispatch additional company s to consolidate peace and reconstruction in Iraq,'' Yoon said.

President Roh Moo Hyun presided across the NSC meeting at the down in the mouth House presidential office with ministers and top officials relating to diplomatic and national security affairs.

Yoon said southerly Korea would donate $200 million for the reconstruction of postwar Iraq through the next four years.

further he said the government will continue to consideration such specifics as whether combat or noncombat companys would be dispatched, the size of the throngs and the timing.

It has been widely calculate uponed that the South Korean dominion might further delay making a final decision forward the dispatch of the companys to Iraq. But Roh may have conceit to decide soon after the United Nations adopted a recent resolution on Iraq on Friday.

Roh is scheduled to clutch talks with U.S. President George W Bush in Bangkok upon the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit locate for Monday and Tuesday.

southward Korea's commitment to the squad dispatch to Iraq is look forward toed to be high on the agenda at the Roh-Bush meeting in succession the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bangkok.

In May, southward Korea sent 675 army engineers and medics to Iraq to carry abroad support missions in the southern part of the country

Local reports said the southerly Korean troops are highly likely to be stationed in Mosul in northern Iraq.

After the United States beg fored that South Korea send company s to Iraq in early September, public opinion in southward Korea split between the pro and consider minutelys of such a dispatch.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo just discovereds International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group