A military medical unit will depart Saturday for Western Sahara to replace the current unit which was dispatched last October to support U.N. peace keeping operations (PKO). The 20-member medical group includes eight army surgeons, six nurses and five aides and will stay in the African nation for six months to give medical treatment to MINURSO, a U.N. mission for overseeing a national referendum in the country. The current medical support group is due to return to Korea April 13 after giving medical treatment to some 2,500 civilians and U.N. PKO personnel in Western Sahara. South Korea first sent a 42-member PKO unit to Western Sahara in August 1994 and has since sent some 400 members to the region. It has participated in 44 PKO activities worldwide, including India, Pakistan and East Timor, since it first sent a PKO unit to Somalia in July 1993.