In a faraway country, surrounded by desert in all directions, the South Korean soldiers hung the poster to express their longing for their families back home. "We’re often stressed here,” a senior officer said. “It’s an ascetic life in the desert" -- just as monks meditate deep in the mountains to seek after religious truth. Daiman officers are racking their brains to prevent combat stress-related accidents.

Combat stress is a mental condition soldiers start to suffer around three months after they are dispatched to combat zones. They feel depressed and lose their temper easily over mere trifles, resulting in firearms-related accidents. This kind of stress is the biggest concern for senior officers with troops stationed overseas. The condition is common among the 2,500 South Korean soldiers stationed in eight areas, including Daiman, Irbil in northern Iraq, and the Dongui Medical Unit and the Dasan Engineering Unit in Afghanistan, where Sgt. Yoon Jang-ho was last week killed in a bomb attack.

So why should Korea send its soldiers to foreign countries if it entails such huge problems? From a broader point of view, we can cite South Korea's alliance with friendly countries, including the United States, its status as one of the 10 largest economies in the world, and its position as a country that has produced UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

From a military point of view, experts say there are many benefits the country stands to gain from dispatching soldiers overseas. First of all, there is experience of the so-called long-range management and supervision of troops and equipment. In October 1999, the Evergreen Unit was dispatched to East Timor as an advance contingent. Staying with the soldiers for about a week, this reporter saw the difficulties they had communicating with their headquarters back home. By contrast, an Australian contingent with a lot of experience overseas maintained a small but efficient communication system linking with their home country around the clock.

In September 2004, the Zaytun Unit transported equipment to Irbil in an operation code-named Pabalma. Since then, the unit has maintained 2,300 to 3,600-strong troops there. It is the first experience of this kind that the South Korean military has had. Before that, we had no experience in feeding and providing shelter for more than 1,000 soldiers and hundreds of pieces of equipment and transporting them to a location 10,000 km away. This is not the kind of know-how that our allies like to share with us readily, so we have to learn by ourselves, through trial and error.

With the death of Sgt. Yoon, some people are calling for an early withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, the top priority should be on minimizing risk for our soldiers stationed overseas. But we should make the most of stationing soldiers overseas without giving in to the threat of terrorism. That is one way to make sure Sgt. Yoon, who will be buried at the National Cemetery in Daejeon on Monday, did not die in vain.

The column was contributed by Yu Yong-weon, the Chosun Ilbo’s senior reporter for military affairs.