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Two South Koreans Shot Dead, Two Hurt in Iraq
Sun November 30, 2003 12:27 PM ET
By Lee Suwan SEOUL (Reuters) -
Gunmen shot dead two South Korean electricity workers and wounded two others in Iraq on Sunday, but South Korea said it was too early to say whether the incident would affect Seoul's decision to send more troops there.
Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck told a hastily arranged briefing in the small hours of Monday that details were still coming in on the incident near ousted president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. One of the wounded was in critical condition, he said.
Asked whether the shootings would affect Seoul's decision to send more troops to Iraq, Lee said: "It is too early to comment. We must take time to analyze things."
Sunday's attack will have major political ramifications for South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, although it seems unlikely he will change his mind to deploy more troops to Iraq.
Lee said the four civilians were working as sub-contractors from a South Korean company to an unspecified U.S. firm at a construction site for a power distribution plant.
"We got such sketchy details because our embassy staff have not yet arrived at the scene," he said.
He said Seoul's top priority was the safety of those South Koreans still in Iraq and he urged them to stay indoors.
The men were on their way to the building site, said Lee Kwang-jae, the ministry's director-general for Middle East Affairs.
The incident came a day after two Japanese diplomats were shot dead in a similar attack in the same area. Seven Spanish intelligence agents were also killed that day south of Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who arrived in Brussels on Sunday ahead of a NATO defense ministerial meeting, called the recent attacks "a tragedy" but said he did not expect the violence to dissuade U.S. allies from staying in Iraq.
COMMITTED TO SENDING MORE TROOPS
Roh has committed his country to sending more troops to Iraq but has yet to make the politically sensitive decision whether to include combat forces in the expected 3,000-strong contingent. Some 675 South Korean medical and engineering troops have been based in Nassiriya in southern Iraq since May without incident.
A fact-finding team that included parliamentarians returned from Iraq last week and is due to report its findings to Roh this week. Yonhap news agency said the team was likely to advocate sending some combat troops.
Many South Koreans oppose sending troops to Iraq. That opposition has grown since the latest spate of attacks on non-U.S. foreigners there. Yonhap quoted North Korean broadcasting as urging the South to change its mind.
Roh said on SBS television on Friday that history might judge it was wrong to send troops to Iraq.
"The most important factor is whether strengthening ties with the United States will help resolve the North Korea issue, not economic benefits," he said, referring to a crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions.
Prime Minister Goh Kun said on Wednesday South Korea might send 3,000 troops to secure a specific part of Iraq and had ruled out sending non-combat troops alone.
Those troops could include special forces trained to try to thwart any North Korean invasion of the South, the Defense Ministry has said.
Roh already faces a domestic political crisis over his decision to veto a parliamentary bill last week that would have appointed a special counsel to probe an election funding scandal.
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