hankyoreh

By Yi Yong-in, staff reporter

Seoul formally announced on Sept. 11 that it supports US President Barack Obama’s planned measures for fighting the Sunni extremist group Islamic State (IS).

The government is now considering additional humanitarian aid for regions of northern Iraq. The prospect of troop deployments for US air strikes appears low, with Seoul stating there had been “no requests.”

But there is a possibility Washington could request other kinds of South Korean aid or deploy USFK if the situation changes with intensifying combat in the region.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Noh Kwang-il affirmed Seoul’s support for the US decision at the regular briefing.

“We support the efforts of the US and the international community to eliminate terrorist actions by the Islamic State,” Noh said.

“As a show of our support, South Korea has announced plans to provide up to US$1.2 million in humanitarian aid,” he added.

In June, Seoul provided US$200,000 in humanitarian aid through the World Health Organization (WHO) after a refugee crisis erupted in northern Iraq over IS attacks. It also began remittance procedures recently after a decision last month to provide a total of US$1 million to the International Organization for Migration, World Food Programme, and International Committee of the Red Cross.

A government official said on condition of anonymity that additional aid was “under consideration” and “would have to be discussed with the related ministries.”

The main question for the moment is whether Washington will ask Seoul to deploy combat troops, as it did with the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“There haven’t been any specific requests from the US government for troops or anything else,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

While the accounts suggest nothing is definite yet, government officials and private experts view the possibility of a US troop request as slim. Unlike the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, the expansion of air strikes into Syria described by Obama would not involve combat deployments or stabilization operations requiring ground forces.

During the Iraq War, the administration of then-President Roh Moo-hyun deployed 600 engineers and medical forces and 3,000 combat troops with stabilization duties at Washington’s request.

In contrast with the combat troop deployment request scenario, the cash-strapped US government is more likely to ask Seoul to contribute financially.

“The US is a bit weak to address the issues in the Middle East entirely through its own abilities,” said an expert at one government think tank on condition of anonymity.

“With the US reaching out to China now, and even Iran, it’s almost certainly going to keep asking its friends and allies in Asia for support in some form or another,” the researcher added.

Another possibility is that some of USFK troops could be deployed over to the IS air strikes as they drag on into the long term or conflict intensifies. In 2004, the US moved 3,600 troops from USFK‘s Second Infantry Division to Iraq, and in 2009 a USFK Apache helicopter battalion was relocated to Iraq and Afghanistan.

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