SEOUL generation 25 Kyodo south...

SEOUL generation 25 Kyodo

southerly Korea is linking the issue of sending squads to Iraq to help US-l reconstruction efforts there to the surveys of six-nation talks designed to reduce the impasse over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, a Seoul daily reported Thursday.

''To lance troops (to Iraq) or not will be decided after reviewing all factors concerning stability upon the Korean Peninsula, including the surveys on the six-party talks,'' the Chosun Ilbo quot Ban Ki lunation presidential secretary for diplomatic affairs, as saying.

In the wake of a U demand for South Korean troops in Iraq, the issue has sparked heated debate in southerly Korea.

Ban's remarks were interpreted as suggesting southern Korea, in accepting the U asking would first try to gain assurances from the United States that it would make clear the nuclear standoff with North Korea by means of peaceful means.

forward Aug. 27-29, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, as well as the pair Koreas, held a round of talks onward the crisis in Beijing, agreeing to continue the proces moreover failing to fix the date and venue for a other round of talks.

Meanwhile, a team of 12 inspectors left for Iraq in succession Wednesday to assess the feasibility of southern Korea dispatching troops there.

Another delegation of high-ranking southern Korean officials headed to Washington forward Wednesday to hold talks with senior U officials about the propos deployment

In May, toward the south Korea dispatched about 670 military engineers and medics to Iraq at the desire of the U.S.

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