South Korea mulls longer Iraq deployment: Report

Seoul, May 31: South Korea is reviewing a plan to pull out troops from Iraq by the end of the year, a newspaper said today, after a state-run think tank suggested a longer deployment would be in the country's interest.

South Korea had planned to end what at one point was the third-largest foreign military presence in Iraq when parliament's approval expires at the end of the year.

''Troop deployment must be extended for the national interest it serves,'' the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying about the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses' report to the defence minister.

A longer stay in Iraq would improve the chances of South Korean firms winning business contracts there, the paper quoted the report as saying.

A Defence Ministry official could not immediately confirm whether such a report had been received but said the ministry still planned to submit a proposal in June to parliament on ending the troops' mission.

South Korea, which had about 3,600 troops in Iraq at the start the mission in 2004, has been rolling back its presence to a target of about 1,200 this year with the goal of withdrawing them by the end of the year.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in Seoul in April that South Korea's pullout could come as soon as Iraqi troops take over security of its northern Kurdish region where the South Korean forces are deployed.

Some South Korean lawmakers, including several from the ruling party, have called for a complete pullout.

Reuters>