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All Korean troops will withdraw from Iraq and Kuwait in December. The Defense Ministry on Wednesday said the Zaytun Unit, which has been carrying out peace-keeping and reconstruction duties in the northern city of Irbil, will hand its duties over to the U.S. military and begin withdrawal in early December and return home by around Dec. 20.
All of about 520 Zaytun troops, including about 20 troops who have guarded the office of the UN Iraq support group in Irbil, and about 10 marines who have guarded the Korean Embassy in Baghdad, will return home by year's end.
In a daily press briefing, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said, "A fact-finding mission has visited Iraq to wind up troop deployment. A withdrawal planning team, of officers from the Defense Ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and each branch of the armed forces, has been formed and is now carrying out its duties."
Won added the government is mulling ways to ensure ¡°that effects of the Zaytun's deployment will linger on in Iraq even after its withdrawal, and we expect many Korean businesses to advance into Iraq."
The unit has been operating a vocational training center, hospital, and library in Irbil. It has received favorable responses from locals in the Kurdish region for its construction of 260 facilities for reconstruction such as schools, public health centers, irrigation facilities, and public security buildings.
All of about 130 members of the Daiman Unit, an air support unit in Kuwait for the Zaytun Unit, will leave Kuwait by the end of this year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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