S. Korea to withdraw troops from Iraq by year’s end

Posted on : 2008-10-30 13:05 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Educational facilities and hospital will continue to operate under U.S. and Kurdish control
 Gyeonggi Province on September 23. The solider is part of the Zaytun Division’s last troop deployment to Iraq. All of the Zaytun troops are to be pulled from the region by the end of this year.
Gyeonggi Province on September 23. The solider is part of the Zaytun Division’s last troop deployment to Iraq. All of the Zaytun troops are to be pulled from the region by the end of this year.

South Korea says it will withdraw all of the troops in its Zaytun Division from Iraq by sometime around December 20, ending a mission that has lasted four years and three months in the war-torn country.

In a regular briefing on October 29, Won Tae-jae, a spokesman at the Ministry of Defense said, “The Zaytun army unit, stationed in the city of Arbil in northern Iraq, will begin pulling out of the country in early December, handing the mission over to U.S. troops, and will complete the withdrawal by around December 20.”

The withdrawal will include the approximately 520 soldiers in the Zaytun Division and the approximately 130 soldiers in the Daiman Unit, a South Korean air-transportation unit in Kuwait whose mission is to support the Zaytun Division, the Defense Ministry spokesman said. “Some construction equipment will be handed over to Iraq, while some will arrive in January because it is being transported by ship,” Won said.

Zaytun means “olive” in Arabic and symbolizes the Zaytun Division’s peacekeeping role in the region. The Zaytun Division currently operates a hospital, a vocational training center, night-time study courses and a taekwondo training facility.

The South Korean government is hoping to continue the work initiated by the Zaytun troops after the withdrawal is complete, Won said. “The government is likely to take various steps and Korean companies are also expected to make inroads (into Iraq),” he said.

Plans to hand the Zaytun Division’s vocational training center for auto repairs and heavy machinery over to U.S. troops are underway, and the government is consulting with the Kurdish Autonomous Region to have the Zaytun Hospital operational after the withdrawal is complete, the spokesman said.

South Korea created the Zaytun Division in February 2004 and its mission in Arbil was begun in September of that year. South Korea had originally stationed 3,656 troops in Iraq, but the number of troops has gradually decreased and there are currently around 520 troops in the country. Amid criticism from South Koreans of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in the past few years, the issue of keeping the Zaytun Division in Iraq has sharply divided Koreans.

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