S. Korea to pull Iraq troops next year

The South Korean government announced Thursday plans to begin withdrawing its 2,300 soldiers from Iraq in April and return them all home by December 2007.

South Korea has maintained a humanitarian and reconstruction operation in the northern Kurdish-controlled Iraqi city of Irbil for the past three years and will bring home about 1,100 troops in April, the Korea Times reported.

Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo told a news conference National Assembly lawmakers had also decided to dispatch a battalion of 350 soldiers to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission. It was also decided to extend the mission of 60 medics and 150 engineers in Afghanistan for another year, Kim said.

When the Iraq war began in March 2003, 49 countries made up the military coalition, but by this past August, the number has fallen to 27 countries, the newspaper said.

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