President Roh Instructs Measures for Troop Dispatch to Iraq

President Roh instructed that when drawing up the plan to dispatch troops to Iraq, the number of troops should not exceed 3,000 and the region of the dispatch should mainly be in the reconstruction area, Yun Tae-young, Blue House spokesman, reported on November 13.

Yun added that in the ministers’ security meeting on November 11, Roh also instructed to consider a proposal that although the police and soldiers who are currently in Iraq should take charge of maintaining security, the Korean army should take part in training and educating them.

Roh’s instructions suggested that the Korean army should not directly take charge of the security maintenance, which attracted many people’s attention.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com