S Korea extends troops deployment in Lebanon

The South Korean Cabinet approved a bill on Tuesday to extend the deployment of the country's military contingent serving as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon until the end of 2013 beyond the current December deadline, Yonhap News Agency reported. Since July 2007, the South Korean unit has been based in Lebanon as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Some 350 troops with specialties in infantry, engineering, medicine, transportation and maintenance have been conducting reconnaissance and surveillance operations and carrying out humanitarian missions such as building schools and other public facilities and providing medical and educational services in Tyre, a southern city lying 20 km from the border with Israel, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. The tenure is the longest for a South Korean peacekeeping unit serving overseas.