SEOUL — President Roh Moo-hyun called yesterday for a one-year extension of South Korean troop deployments in Iraq, saying that closer relations with Washington were vital to his nation’s security.
“Cooperation from the U.S. is essential to the security of Northeast Asia and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Roh said.
“Amid the unpredictability surrounding the North Korean nuclear-weapons issue, the importance of a closer South Korea-U.S. alliance cannot be overemphasized,” Yonhap news agency quoted Mr. Roh as saying.
In a similar vein, South Korea’s ambassador to Washington, Lee Tae-sik, told The Washington Times earlier this month that his government wanted the United States to maintain its current troop strength in South Korea.
“We want you to stay until we’ve established a peace mechanism, until we reunify the country. But even after reunification, the U.S. presence will be needed,” Mr. Lee said.
Even North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has said he shares that view, the ambassador said.
With about 1,250 troops in Iraq, South Korea has the fourth-largest contingent in the alliance after the United States, Britain and Georgia, according to the South Korean defense ministry.
The Korean troops are in the northern, Kurdish-dominated region of the troubled country, which is largely peaceful.
They have suffered no casualties in combat, although the unit has had one suicide, the defense ministry said.
With increasing Turkish-Kurdish tensions, however, there are fears that the region may not remain peaceful.
South Korea will go ahead with plans to cut its deployment in half, to about 600 troops, as other alliance members such as Britain as doing.
But Mr. Roh urged the nation to extend its presence in Iraq by one year, through the end of 2008. South Korean troops had been slated to withdraw completely by the end of the year.
An extension must be ratified by the National Assembly.
With presidential elections upcoming, competing parties are already in the trenches.
Ironically, the conservative opposition party appears more likely to favor Mr. Roh’s call for a one-year extension than do pro-government liberal lawmakers, who are in a state of political flux after the dissolution of Mr. Roh’s Uri Party.
The spokesman of opposition candidate Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party supported Mr. Roh’s call for an extended deployment, according to local press reports.
But Chung Dong-young, the candidate of the pro-government United New Democratic Party, is expected to vote against it.
The liberals are thought to hold about 141 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly.
Mr. Roh will depart office at the end of February, after elections in December. He is finishing his term with U.S.-Korean relations in better shape than when he took office.
He was elected in December 2002 amid massive anti-American protests after the deaths of two Korean schoolgirls in a road accident and the subsequent acquittal, by court-martial, of the U.S. troops involved.
Relations initially remained strained over the Bush administration’s hard-line stance toward North Korea, including its refusal to hold bilateral U.S.-North Korea talks until recently.
But since last October’s North Korean nuclear test, Washington has taken a more conciliatory line toward Pyongyang by negotiating directly with North Korean officials.
Washington’s reversal of policy has helped break a deadlock in six-nation denuclearization talks, which also include China, Japan and Russia.
“Now, Roh realizes the reality: At the beginning of this term, he did not know what was going on,” said Sung Deuk-hahm, a professor at Korea University. “Five years later, he realizes influence of the United States on Korea — security and economic. Without U.S. cooperation, he cannot accomplish anything.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.