Posted on 12/05/2003 11:14:17 PM PST by OahuBreeze
The presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, Friday defended the decision by President No Mu-hyon to dispatch additional troops to Iraq as a means of contributing to peace and help rehabilitate the war-torn Middle East nation.
In a press briefing, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Yun T'ae-yong said, "It is absurd for the local media to distort President Roh's intention to send troops to Iraq for rehabilitation efforts and help consolidate peace on the Korean Peninsula."
Yoon was commenting on an editorial of the nation's largest daily, the Choson Ilbo, which called for Roh to reconsider his decision to dispatch troops to Iraq and described the 3,000 young South Korean soldiers to be sent as "sacrificial lambs" in order to maintain Seoul's good relationship with Washington.
The editorial, which appeared in the conservative newspaper's Friday edition, denounced Roh for allegedly explaining to a parliamentary fact-finding mission to Iraq that he based the troop dispatch decision on the need for South Korea to maintain its friendly ties with the United States amid the rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.
"The term 'sacrificial lambs' is tantamount to an insult to our soldiers working hard in Iraq for peace and reconstruction," Yoon said, adding that Roh was just stressing the importance of enhancing bilateral ties with the United States in addressing the North Korean nuclear issue in the meeting with the parliamentary delegation.
Yoon also dismissed the allegation that the likely prospect of economic gains for South Korea swayed the decision-making process for the troop dispatch.
"We should not expect a repeat of the kind of boom seen in the construction sector in the Middle East in the 1970s, even after the troop dispatch," he said, citing the different economic situation between then and now.
Yonhap, Nov 6: President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday the South Korea-U.S. alliance and future oil market prospects will be key elements in the government's final decision, referring to press speculation earlier about South Korea's planned troop dispatch to Iraq.[...] "Washington has taken an active posture on the North Korean nuclear problem after the government decided to send more troops to Iraq," he was quoted as saying by his spokesman, Yoon Tai-young. [...] "The South Korea-U.S. alliance is important, and prospects of the world oil market order could also be an element of consideration," Roh said.
Yonhap, Nov 7: President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday said his government has yet to determine the specific size and type of the planned dispatch of troops to Iraq and would consider the alliance with the United State as the most important factor in reviewing the matter.[...] He said the outlook on supply of oil in international community would also be another important factor to be reckoned with regarding the issue.
Choson Ilbo, Sep 18th: The president listed several factors to be considered in making the decision, such as a national value for the future, concrete national interests and Korea's image in the international community.
SBS Television Forum, 28 Nov, President Roh: People talk about national interest and about making money by sending troops to Iraq and participating in reconstruction and securing oil, but I am not considering these at all and these are actually very unlikely."
You gotta love this guy.... He is Slick Willy times-ten.
Aside from the sarcasm... the problem is that the Roh administration has never tied any moral underpinning into their continuum of considerations on the troop dispatch: you never hear (at least I didn't till Roh's FM was refuting the obvious, above) "for the Iraqi people," or "to do our part in the war on terrorism," or anything like that. In fact, last week Pres Roh said that he didn't know if history would judge the Iraq occupation as right or wrong but he needed to send troops to help resolve (ie. nuzzle up to the Bush administration to try to coax them into appeasing NK) the Nork's nuke provocation. The problem is, by refusing to recognize and promulgate any moral justification to the troop dispatch, he is opening the way for the (largely NK-directed) dissident movement in SK to seize the moral high ground....
sigh...
Incidentally, the Chosun Ilbo editorial referred to ( http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200312/200312040030.html) was NOT calling on Roh to reconsider his decision for the troop deployment, but to reconsider the BASIS for his decision on the troop deployment....
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