Seoul: A Dutch contingent of military personnel has arrived in South Korea for deployment at the United Nations Command (UNC), officials said Saturday, in a sign of the commitment by the international community to maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula amid North Korea's military threats.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the arrival of the three-member contingent at the U.S.-led multinational force's headquarters this month marks the first such deployment in 70 years since the Dutch Navy last left South Korea in January 1955. It also comes at a time when security partnerships among countries in the Indo-Pacific region and Europe have increasingly become important amid North Korea's deepening military alignment with Russia.
The Netherlands plans to send contingents on a rotational basis until the end of next year under a plan that Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans reported to his country's House of Representatives in October last year. "Security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific is increasingly connected. It is also in our interest that the ceasefire between North Korea and South Korea since 1953 is maintained," Brekelmans wrote in Dutch in a X post. "That is why the Netherlands is once again contributing to the U.N. command in South Korea," he said.
The Dutch defense ministry separately stated that the Netherlands will be "contributing to the promotion of the international rule of law in the Indo-Pacific" through the deployment. The three service members -- two officers and one noncommissioned officer -- started their deployment on Jan. 6, tasked with roles in gender policy, logistics and communications strategy, respectively, according to the UNC.
The UNC was established under a 1950 U.N. mandate to support South Korea against North Korean aggression during the 1950-53 Korean War, which technically has never ended as a peace treaty was not signed. A total of 22 countries, including the United States, Britain, and Australia, sent troops or medical support to the South during and right after the war.
Germany provided medical assistance to South Korea from 1954-59 but was not included as a UNC member state as the armistice was signed in July 1953. The country joined the UNC in August, marking the multinational force's first expansion in more than a decade. The Netherlands deployed both naval and ground forces during the Korean War, of which 120 were killed in action and 645 were wounded, according to the UNC. There are currently 11 countries that send personnel on rotations to the UNC headquarters, where more than 200 officials serve.