SEOUL, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- South Korea Friday decided to link the deployment of combat troops to Iraq to progress in defusing the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
The decision came at a National Security Council meeting of senior ministers presided over by President Roh Moo-hyun to discuss the U.S. request to provide some 5,000 combat troops to assist the U.S.-led operations in post-war Iraq. A U.S. official said Washington would like a decision by mid-October.
"The government should be convinced and optimistic about peace and stability on the Korean peninsula before deciding whether to send troops or not," a presidential official told UPI.
The "linkage strategy" calls for more U.S. efforts toward a peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula in return for South Korean combat troops in the Persian Gulf.
Some 675 South Korean army engineers and medics are already in Iraq to assist in U.S.-led rehabilitation efforts.
