South Korean parliament puts off vote on sending troops to Iraq

South Korean parliament puts off vote on sending troops to Iraq

Lim Chang-Won
Agence France-Presse
Seoul

South Korea's parliament, fearing a public backlash, shelved a
vote on Tuesday on sending troops to support U.S. war efforts in
Iraq as anti-war protests mounted here.

President Roh Moo-Hyun expressed regret, saying the dispatch
of troops would have helped South Korea persuade the United
States to solve the North Korean nuclear crisis peacefully.

Roh's proposal last week to contribute some 700 non-combatants
to the war effort sparked criticism and a rising tide of anti-war
protests. Newspaper surveys showed up to 80 percent of South
Koreans oppose the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

"Both parties agreed to put off the vote," Chung Kyun-Hwan,
floor leader of Roh's ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP),
told reporters after the bill to send troops faced strong
opposition from voters.

The conservative opposition Grand National Party (GNP), which
holds a majority in parliament, initially supported the
president's pledge to dispatch troops.

"Our party cannot go and take the blame for sending troops
alone," GNP spokesman Suh Myong-Rim told AFP, adding Roh's
proposal would be put to the assembly again next week.

"If we send troops there, South Korea would be recorded as a
war criminal in history," Kim Hong-Shin, a GNP member of
parliament, told a GNP meeting.

The delay followed scuffles outside the National Assembly
between riot police and hundreds of anti-war protesters. Police
detained 26 radical students who broke into the National Assembly
compound during the debate.

Thousands of riot police had formed human barricades to block
the protests by nuns, monks and civic group activists.

The influential Korean Bar Association has ruled the war on
Iraq illegal and South Korea's two umbrella labor groups, which
have more than 1.6 million members, have threatened a general
strike if the assembly approves Roh's decision.

The Peoples Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, the most
influential civic group in South Korea, threatened to sue against
any move to send troops to Iraq, citing the constitution banning
any war of aggression.

Liberal lawmakers warned the troop dispatch would rekindle
anti-US sentiment.

Some 37,000 American troops are stationed here as a deterrent
against possible aggression from North Korea which invaded South
Korea in 1950, triggering a devastating three-year war.

But the 50-year-old military alliance between Washington and
Seoul has been strained by massive anti-US demonstrations
following the deaths of two schoolgirls last year in a traffic
accident involving a U.S. military vehicle.

The debate highlights differences here on how to handle the
five-month-old stand-off over North Korea's nuclear weapons drive
which has heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

"The government submitted the bill out of a need to resolve
the North Korean nuclear issue and in consideration of the Korea-
U.S. alliance," MDP spokesman Moon Seok-Ho said.

Roh has ruled out the use of sanctions or military action
against North Korea. Washington has said it is keeping all
options open, including the use of force, while seeking a
peaceful end to the crisis.

Roh dismissed concerns here as groundless that a new flare-up
across the world's last Cold War frontier could emerge following
hostilities against Iraq.