SOUTH KOREA: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VOTE TO SEND NON-COMBAT TROOPS TO IRAQ AS ANTI- WAR PROTESTORS SCUFFLE WITH POLICE OUTSIDE THE PARLIAMENT.

Record ID: 328771

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VOTE TO SEND NON-COMBAT TROOPS TO IRAQ AS ANTI- WAR PROTESTORS SCUFFLE WITH POLICE OUTSIDE THE PARLIAMENT.
  • Date: 2nd April 2003
  • Summary: (W5) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (APRIL 2, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS: OF LAW MAKERS VOTING IN PARLIAMENT. (6 SHOTS) 0.27 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CHAIRMAN PARK KWAN-YONG SAYING: "As 179 voted in favour and 68 against, with nine abstentions, I hearby announce that the bill to send South Korean troops to Iraq has been approved." ZOOM OUT/MV: BANGING TABLE WITH WOODEN STAFF. 0.44 3. HAS/WS: MORE OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY WITH MEDIA WATCHING. 0.49 4. HAS/WS/PAN: EXTERIOR OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY/ POLICE CONFRONT DEMONSTRATORS WITH LINE OF BUSES. 1.12 5. HAS: DEMONSTRATORS ROCK BUS WITH POLICE ON ITS ROOF. 1.19 6. VARIOUS: MORE OF SCUFFLES BETWEEN POLICE AND DEMONSTRATORS. (8 SHOTS) 3.06 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 34-YEAR-OLD PROTEST LEADER LEE HYUNG-SOO SAYING: "Every South Korean knows that this war has no justification and this is a war of invasion. In that aspect, the approval of the bill is our nation's shame." 3.24 8. WS: OF PROTEST SHOWING DEMONSTRATORS BLOCKING ROAD. 3.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Reuters ID: LVA821TM70SMY0RQM2D2PENXEX36
  • Story Text: South Korea's parliament has voted to send non-combat
    troops to Iraq, handing a political victory to new President
    Roh Moo-hyun in the face of widespread opposition to the
    U.S.-led war to oust President Saddam Hussein.



    The vote in the opposition-led assembly on Wednesday
    (April 2) was 179 in favour and 68 against, with nine
    abstentions.

    The National Assembly voted to send about 700 medical and
    engineering personnel to Iraq after Roh told lawmakers that
    cementing close ties with Washington was key to securing peace
    on the divided Korean peninsula.

    Lawmakers had already delayed the vote three times because
    of public hostility to the proposal.

    As the bill was approved, about 1,000 anti-war protesters,
    who had been scuffling with the police outside the parliament,
    became violent.

    They pushed back police and police buses, blocking the way
    to the national assembly compound, in an attempt to enter the
    compound.

    Protesters kicked and threw sand at the police while the
    police responded with shields and clubs. At least five
    protesters were injured.

    "Every South Korean knows that this war has no
    justification and this is a war of invasion. In that aspect,
    the approval of the bill is our nation's shame," said
    34-year-old protest leader Lee Hyung-soo (pronounced as LEE
    HYONG-SOO).

    South Korea is one of the United States' closest allies,
    but many of Roh's supporters, particularly young voters, chafe
    at the presence of 37,000 U.S. troops in the country.

    The president himself, who took office on February 25, won
    election pledging a more mature and equal partnership with
    Washington.

    In a speech to parliament, Roh acknowledged the case made
    by his opponents that the war against Iraq lacked moral
    justification. Global politics, he said, were being driven by
    the "forces of reality".

    But Roh said South Korea could not ignore that its
    national interest lay in maintaining close ties with the
    United States because of the role it played in deterring
    communist North Korea.

    North Korea has 1.1 million men in its armed forces, many
    of them deployed near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which has
    divided the two Koreas since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a
    truce rather than a peace treaty.

    Conservatives have backed Roh's initiative, citing the
    need for U.S. help in defusing tensions generated by communist
    North Korea's suspected nuclear arms programme, which the
    president said still posed a danger for the South.

    GULF WAR 3



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