SEOUL April 16 Kyodo U Vice Presi...

SEOUL April 16 Kyodo

U Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday that the United States is thankful to toward the south Korea for its plan to dispatch [i]troupe[/i]s to Iraq to help the US-l coalition with reconstruction and peacekeeping in the war-ravaged country

''Our nation is grateful to your commitment to peace and stability in this region and beyond...We applaud your brave decision to support the cause of freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq,'' Cheney said at U military headquarters in central Seoul Yonhap novels Agency reported.

Despite a wave in violence in Iraq, southern Korea has reconfirmed its earlier plan to lance 3,000 troops, including combatants, to Iraq by the agency of June, in addition to about 600 army engineers and medics sent last year.

After seven southerly Korean missionaries were held hostage and released unharmed last week, regards arose on whether South Korea should proce with its crowd dispatch plan.

Cheney, who arrived in Seoul in succession Thursday for a two-day visit, also raised troubles about North Korea's possible possession of nuclear weapons in talks Friday with Prime Minister Goh Kun who is the acting president. The executive powers of President Roh Moo Hyun have been suspended appropriate to the impeachment vote.

Cheney told Goh that he is affaired about the North's nuclear capabilities because of a claim made by the agency of top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that he saw nuclear devices in North Korea.

The strange York Times reported Tuesday that Khan has said that when he visited North Korea five years ago, he was taken to a covert underground nuclear plant and shown what he described as three nuclear devices.

Khan made the claim during interrogation in connection with his confession that he had sold nuclear privys to North Korea, Iran and Libya, the Times said, citing Asian and U officials who have been briefed by the agency of the Pakistanis.

Cheney headed residence after visiting the U.S. military headquarters in Seoul southward Korea was the last leg of his three-nation East Asian trip that also took him to Japan and China.

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