SEOUL, 20 March 2004 — South Korea became the latest US ally in Iraq to balk at sending troops to an increasingly violent peacekeeping effort, scrubbing plans yesterday for a mission to the Iraqi hotspot of Kirkuk.
South Korea promised to eventually dispatch the 3,600 troops earmarked for Iraq, but only after it finds a safer location. The government, already worried about terrorism at home, cited security concerns in Kirkuk and US pressure to participate in “offensive operations.”
The mission, originally scheduled for as early as next month, would make South Korea the largest coalition partner behind the United States and Britain. Deployment will now be delayed, possibly until June.
Kirkuk has seen rising ethnic tensions as Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen compete for control of the city, located in one of the world’s richest oil-producing regions.
The move comes as other rattled allies waver on troop commitments. Spain’s new government threatened to pull its 1,300 troops by July after last week’s terrorist bombings in Madrid killed 202 — possibly by Al-Qaida-linked militants retaliating for Spain’s allegiance with the United States. On Thursday, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said his country was “misled” about whether Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction and also was considering an early troop pullout.
Staunch allies Australia and the Philippines, however, rushed to buttress the coalition amid signs of stress. “Iraq is now on the cusp of a positive new chapter,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. “Now is not the time for the international community to succumb to terrorist threats and to abandon the Iraqi people.”
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo rejected calls by opposition lawmakers to withdraw its 96-member contingent from Iraq and distance her country from the US-led war on terrorism. “What the opposition is suggesting is that we just silently cower in fear and hope the terrorists won’t strike at us,” Arroyo said. “This will not work. Terrorists are bullies and the more you cower, the more they will hit you.”
Japan has likewise stood by its plans to deploy about 1,000 soldiers to assist with rebuilding in Iraq, Tokyo’s largest overseas military dispatch since World War II. Sending troops to Iraq was unpopular with the South Korean public. But the government backed the plan saying it would help win Washington’s backing for a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis. South Korea’s 650,000-member military is backed by about 37,000 US troops on the divided Korean Peninsula in facing off against North Korea’s army, which with 1.1 million soldiers is the world’s fifth largest.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Seoul’s decision was “tactical and technical” and unrelated to the Spain bombings: “We are going to continue to dispatch our troops to Iraq as was already committed.”
But the government has also warned that it is a possible terror target for sending troops to Iraq. It stepped up security at airports, railways and elsewhere after the Madrid bombings.
Lt. Gen. Kim Jang-su, who returned yesterday from a fact-finding trip to Iraq where he met the top US commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said South Korea has “no option” but to delay the dispatch. Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed defense official, said it will be put off until June. Underpinning the decision was a disagreement over keeping a contingent of US troops in the Kirkuk area after the South Koreans take over.
Washington had wanted to post some of its own soldiers there to help “conduct stabilization operations” under South Korean command. But Kim said that is contrary to the parliamentary mandate restricting South Korean forces to peacekeeping and reconstruction.
The South Korean general also said the equipment South Korea has prepared is not fit for offensive operations. The troops, to include special forces and marines, were to take complete control of relief and security needs in the region around Kirkuk, some 290 kilometers north of Baghdad.
Kim said the United States and South Korea have not yet discussed possible new locations. Yonhap said a strong alternative site is Najaf in southern Iraq, where Spanish troops currently operate.
A US Defense Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States values “South Korea’s contribution in fighting terrorism” and that “it is up to each country to decide what type, duration and scope of support it may provide the coalition.”
About 460 South Korean medics and military engineers have been in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah for almost a year, and will come home when the new dispatch is sent. Thousands of South Korean soldiers have volunteered for Iraq duty because of a hefty hardship bonus. A sergeant sent to Iraq can expect monthly pay of $1,100, compared to the $15 he would make back home under mandatory military service.
