"I know that the government has not yet received a U.N. request for a dispatch of additional forces to South Sudan. If the United Nations makes a request, a comprehensive review will be made by the government,“ said the spokesman, Kim Min-seok, in a briefing.
South Korea’s 280-member Hanbit unit, mostly composed of engineers and medics, has been operating in the town of Bor, some 170km north of Juba. The peacekeepers have been provided 10,000 rounds of additional ammunition from Japan via a U.N. mission as part of efforts to step up their defense posture, the defense ministry said.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked the U.N. Security Council to send 5,500 more peace-keeping troops to the African nation to protect civilians from violence.
According to news reports, clashes broke out again in the South Sudanese capital of Juba on Tuesday, a day after President Salva Kiir said security forces had put down an attempted coup by supporters of his former deputy.
The fighting killed at least 26 people and exposed deep ethnic rifts in Africa's youngest nation, which won its independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com