South Korea will send an inter-agency team of
officials to Haiti and Lebanon this week to help determine whether the missions of Seoul's peacekeeping contingents stationed in those countries should be extended, the foreign ministry said Monday.
About 240 troops, mostly engineers, have been working in Haiti since late February as part of the U.N. mission to help the Caribbean state recover from a massive earthquake in January. The unit is stationed in Leogane, one of the
hardest-hit regions.
South Korea has also stationed about 350 troops in Lebanon since 2007 as part of the U.N. interim forces' efforts to oversee a cease-fire and set up a buffer zone between Lebanon and Israel.
Both missions are set to expire at the end of this year.
A team of officials from the foreign ministry, the defense ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Assembly will visit Haiti, New York and Lebanon from Aug. 31 to Sept. 8 to assess the need for extending the peacekeeping forces'
missions, foreign ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said.
Leading the team will be Paik Ji-ah, director-general for U.N. affairs at the foreign ministry.
The troop deployments are part of South Korea's efforts to expand its role in international affairs. Seoul has also dispatched dozens of civilian aid workers earlier this year to help rebuild the war-torn nation.