Lebanon troop deployment delayed until summer

Korea plans to defer the deployment of 350 troops to Lebanon until July, a few months later than originally scheduled, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.

Seoul had planned to send the troops around March or April to Lebanon`s southwestern region of Tyre, 83 kilometers south of Beirut. The battalion-sized contingent will join U.N. peacekeeping forces in the volatile region.

"Considering the time needed for the Lebanese government to select a camp site and for the construction of facilities there, the peacekeeping troops will be deployed around the middle of this year," Maj. Gen. Park Jung-yi, chief of military operation bureau at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

"It is expected to be around mid-June or July," Park said.

The Korean forces, comprising infantry, medics and engineering personnel, are likely to be patrolling the main streets of Tyre and providing security for a 10 kilometer-long area nearby, he said.

The United Nations had formerly requested the Seoul government to join U.N. international forces in Lebanon after an armed conflict between Israel and Lebanon`s radical Shiite group Hezbollah last summer.

A total of 12,000 soldiers from 28 nations are participating in the UNIFIL operation.

(davidpooh@heraldm.com)



By Jin Dae-woong