South Korea is considering contributing troops to the proposed United Nations peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon, government officials said Sunday.
"South Korea is among the U.N. member countries asked to dispatch peacekeeping troops to Lebanon," a foreign ministry official said. "Related ministries are in consultations on the issue."
He stressed that nothing has been decided yet, including whether to send soldiers there.
The U.N. Security Council's cease-fire resolution on the Israel-Lebanon conflict was put into effect last week, paving the way for the deployment of about 15,000 international peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to help the same number of Lebanese troops extend their authority in the area.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to U.N. member states to provide peacekeepers, assuring them the U.N. force would not be tasked with fighting Israel, Lebanon, or Hezbollah.
South Korean soldiers as currently stationed in East Timor, Georgia, west Sahara and the Kashmir area disputed by India and Pakistan as part of U.N. peacekeeping forces.
Seoul, Aug. 20 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea mulls dispatch of troops to Lebanon |
