Two S. Korean Army officers to work for U.N. peacekeeping department

SEOUL, March 13 (Yonhap) -- Two South Korean Army officers will work for a United Nations department handling peacekeeping operations for the next two years, the defense ministry here said Tuesday. The ministry said Maj. Choi Sung-yi will serve as an evaluation officer under the office of military affairs at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), and Maj. Hong Jong-kil will be a planning officer at the DPKO's military planning service department. According to the ministry, Choi will monitor and assess peacekeeping operations in Africa, and Hong will be tasked with drafting operational concept for peacekeeping missions. Their terms will be for two years starting this Friday. "These officers were selected in December last year for their wealth of peacekeeping operations experience at the U.N. and their proficiency in English," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it had recommended about 10 officers to the U.N. The ministry said Choi had been on a peacekeeping team for Nepal from 2007 to 2008, and Hong had served in Georgia from 2004 to 2005 and worked on a team of observers to monitor the armistice between India and Pakistan from 2009 to 2010. The ministry said Choi, 41, and Hong, 42, will be joined by four other South Korean officers already working for the DPKO. "As South Korea's contribution to global peacekeeping operations increases, we're seeing more officers joining the U.N.," the ministry said. "We will be fully behind their effort to globalize our military through the international networks that they establish with other elite officers from around the world." A total of 635 South Korean troops are serving as U.N. peacekeepers in eight global missions, including Pakistan, Nepal and East Timor, according to the ministry. The country is expected to dispatch more peacekeepers to South Sudan sometime this year. (END)