S. Korea to Cut Iraq Force, Extend Mission

SEOUL —  South Korea’s parliament approved a government plan Friday to bring home one-third of the country’s troops in Iraq but extended the overall deployment for a year.

The plan was approved 110 to 31, with 17 abstentions.

It calls for the withdrawal of about 1,000 of the 3,200 South Korean military personnel who are helping rebuild a Kurdish area of northern Iraq.

South Korea has more troops in Iraq than any partner in the U.S.-led coalition except Britain. The mission had been scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

The government plan is partly in response to calls by lawmakers and citizens to reduce South Korea’s troop level in Iraq as other U.S. allies pull out of the coalition or scale back their participation. Ukraine and Bulgaria announced this week that their soldiers had left Iraq.

The deployment is unpopular among South Koreans worried about security. In June 2004, Islamic insurgents beheaded a South Korean civilian working in Iraq after Seoul rejected demands to withdraw its troops.

The South Korean government believes the deployment will help strengthen its alliance with the United States, whose support it needs to help resolve the dispute over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.