South Korea will start to deploy 3,000 troops to Iraq's Arbil area in early August to help build the northern region, the defence ministry said today.
The announcement caps months of debate in South Korea on a pledge first made to US President George W. Bush by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in October last year and approved by parliament in February.
South Korea already has about 670 military engineers and medics in southern Iraq, and they will join the larger deployment in the North.