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The South Korean parliament postponed again the vote on a bill authorizing the government to send non-combating troops to support the US-led military campaign against Iraq.
According to national news agency Yonhap News, National Assembly Speaker Park Kwan-yong on Friday decided to convened a two-day "committee of the whole" meeting beginning Friday afternoon to discuss the troop dispatch motion and delay again the ballots on the bill after Tuesday's suspension.
The speaker made such decision at the request of 71 legislators of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and Grand National Party (GNP), who asked for more thorough debate for the South Korean troop dispatch before the parliament acted on the motion, reported Yonhap.
The parliament was scheduled to vote the troop dispatch motion Friday afternoon in its full plenary session after Tuesday's delay.
The South Korean government last Friday announced it is to dispatch some 600 engineering and some 100 medical treatment troops to support its ally, the United States, under the spirit of the South Korea-US alliance.
The stance aroused amounting protest in civilian groups, younger generation as well as the lawmakers.
Parliamentary observers predicted that the legislature could vote the controversial motion next Monday at earliest, and the fortune of the bill is still unclear for one-third lawmakers have expressed their negative attitude toward the motion.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2003)
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