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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-093004threat_lat,1,1970951.story?coll=la-home-headlines

SEOUL — American installations in South Korea went on a high state of alert last week after intelligence was received that a terrorist attack might be planned in retaliation for the dispatch of Korean troops to Iraq.

More than 30,000 U.S. troops, along with family members and military contractors, have faced a 9 p.m. curfew since Sept. 24. Roadblocks and armored vehicles have cropped up around U.S. facilities here, while the South Korean government has upped security around its diplomatic establishments abroad.

A South Korean official said that in recent weeks very specific intelligence had been received from the United States, Australia and Indonesia warning of possible attacks against American and South Korea targets.

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul warned U.S. citizens of the increased threat of "suicide operations, bombings, or kidnappings," with the strongest language used in an advisory since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It seemed like a prudent thing to do since Korea had just deployed its troops," said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, about the citizen advisory.

Islamic terrorism is novel for South Korea, where the security apparatus is designed around the threat posed by communist North Korea. But deployment of 2,800 South Korean soldiers to Iraq — the largest deployment of foreign troops in the country after U.S. and British forces — has brought the distant war in the Middle East closer to home.

"There is a sense that this type of terrorist activity is moving from the Middle East to the U.S. and Europe and into Asia. Korea will not be an exception, given our close relationship with the United States and the size of the troops dispatch to Iraq," said Hahm Seung Hee, a former South Korean legislator who this year spearheaded a National Assembly investigation into suspected activity by Al Qaeda sympathizers in South Korea.

Last year, a Pakistani national with ties to Al Qaeda apparently visited South Korea in order to scout possible targets, the investigation found. Another suspect, who allegedly was connected with an Indonesian cell, tried to enter the country but was turned back because of faulty travel documents.

Ending a nearly two-month news blackout, the South Korean military announced last week that it had completed the deployment of its troops to the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq. The troop dispatch began Aug. 3, but by agreement the South Korean press refrained from publicizing the movement of troops until they were fully in place.

"We want to be as low profile as possible about this," said Moon Chung In, a South Korean academic who has advised the government on the Iraq dispatch. "We are fulfilling our duties as an ally of the United States, but we see no need to have high visibility."

South Koreans are worried not only about attacks against U.S. installations, but also against facilities patronized mainly by Koreans. South Koreans traveling abroad also have been advised to keep a low profile.

"This is a small country, so we are able to monitor who goes in and out. But it is harder to protect Koreans abroad," said a South Korean official, who asked not to be quoted by name.

He said another concern was that nationals might get involved in violent antiwar activities or even terrorism.

South Korea, one of the most ethnically homogenous countries in Asia, has only a small Islamic community of about 100,000 people, with roughly two-thirds of them foreigners.

The nation was traumatized by the beheading in June of a 33-year-old translator, Kim Sun Il, at the hands of kidnappers in Iraq who demanded that South Korea cancel its plans to send troops. There have been smaller incidents as well against Koreans, including a brief kidnapping of a diplomat in Baghdad, and threats against their embassies in Afghanistan and Thailand.