South Korea rose to the world's 31st largest contributor to U.N. peacekeeping forces as the country seeks to play a greater role in the international community, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
The number of South Korean peacekeeping troops rose from 401 at the end of last year to 645 in August after the country sent about 240 soldiers, mostly engineers, to Haiti early this year to help the Caribbean state cope with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.
The increase brought South Korea's standing among 115 countries with peacekeeping forces stationed overseas to 31st from 39th last year, the ministry said.
In Lebanon, about 350 South Korean troops have been stationed since 2007 as part of the U.N. interim forces' efforts to oversee a cease-fire and set up a buffer zone between Lebanon and Israel.
Both the Haiti and Lebanon missions are set to expire at the end of this year, and South Korea is considering whether to extend the deployments.
South Korea also has small numbers of military officers and observers stationed in countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal and East Timor for peacekeeping or cease-fire monitoring purposes.
The troop deployments are part of South Korea's efforts to expand its role in international affairs. Seoul also dispatched dozens of civilian aid workers earlier this year to Afghanistan to help rebuild the war-torn nation.
Seoul plans to increase the number of peacekeeping troops to more than 1,000 in the future.