By KUNA,
Tokyo : South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee will head to Iraq, Kuwait and Lebanon next month to visit South Korean troops deployed there as part of the country’s international peacekeeping efforts, Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency reported Friday.
“Minister Lee will embark on a seven-day trip from November 6 to visit units deployed overseas, such as Zaytun in Iraq, Daiman in Kuwait and Dongmyeong in Lebanon,” Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters in Seoul, according to Yonhap.
Lee’s visit to Iraq comes as the country is moving to pull out all its troops from Iraq by December 20.
The Daiman unit, an Air Force’s support unit for the Iraqi contingent, will also be pulled out from Kuwait before the year’s end, the ministry has said.
The South Korean unit in Iraq began its deployment in 2004 with some 3,600 troops, but the troop level has been reduced to some 520 over the course of three one-year extensions.
Some 360 South Korean service members are currently stationed in Lebanon as part of a 28-nation UN peacekeeping force, known as the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon.