Seoul mulls sending about 200 PKO forces to Haiti

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will likely send 200-300 troops to Haiti
as part of U.N. peacekeeping operation (PKO) in the Caribbean country devastated
by recent earthquakes, a ranking government official said Thursday.
The Seoul government will dispatch a group of officials next week to study
conditions for its PKO troops in Haiti, the official noted.
"The number of troops will be decided either today or tomorrow, but what is more
important is how soon we will be able to send troops, rather than how many we
will send," the official told reporters, asking not to be identified.
Seoul's Vice Foreign Minister Chun Young-woo will travel to New York on Friday to
meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other officials from the world
body on the envisioned dispatch of South Korean PKO troops to Haiti, its foreign
ministry said earlier Thursday.
The official noted it may take weeks before the government can send troops to
Haiti, as the move requires prior approval by the National Assembly, which will
hold an extraordinary session next month.
Tens of thousands of people have been confirmed dead since the small Caribbean
nation was hit on Tuesday last week by a powerful earthquake of 7.0-magnitude. It
was hit again on Wednesday by a 6.1-magnitude quake.
(END)