By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A group of 20 Lebanese officials and students arrived in Seoul Thursday as part of a goodwill exchange program organized by South Korea’s Dongmyeong unit stationed in Tyre, 83 kilometers south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) here said.
The group, consisting of local provincial leaders and students belonging to Dongmyeong’s taekwondo and other volunteer classes, will stay here until Feb. 10, the JCS said.
This invitation program is designed to promote South Korea and its traditional martial art, taekwondo, worldwide, it said.
During their stay, the group will tour the Seoul area and the truce village of Panmunjeom near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, as well as visit the presidential office, museums and other cultural sites, including a traditional folk village in Gyeonggi Province, according to the JCS.
In July 2007, South Korea dispatched about 350 peacekeeping troops, mostly special forces and engineers, to the southern region of Lebanon at the request of the United Nations.
More than 13,000 troops from over 30 countries, including Italy and Spain, are working with the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL). UNIFIL's missions include overseeing the border area with Israel in southern Lebanon and ensuring the stability of the central Lebanese government.
Besides patrol and security-related missions, the South Korean contingent conducts community outreach activities, under the motto of ``Peace Wave,'' including the reconstruction of schools and public facilities and medical and educational programs.
Some members of the unit received honorary medals from the United Nations earlier this week for their successful efforts in maintaining security in the Middle East nation.