The United States has thanked South Korea for the parliamentary passage of a bill authorizing the dispatch of three-thousand troops to war-torn Iraq.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed "deep appreciation" to Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon in a phone call Sunday.
Earlier on Friday, the National Assembly approved the deployment, which will comprise the third-largest contribution to coalition forces in Iraq, following those of the United States and Britain.
South Korea already has 465 medics and engineers in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.