Irbil, Iraq -- As a C-130 military transport plane neared Irbil, 350 kilometers north of Baghdad, it started a roller-coaster descent aimed at dodging ground-to-air attacks.

Some were airsick during the bumpy 10-minute landing, while others appeared to be enjoying the rare experience.

Ten reporters and a television camera crew traveling from South Korea were asked to wear helmets and bulletproof jackets, which reminded them that they were in a battlefield.

Upon arriving at a small airport here, the visitors were guarded by heavily armed South Korean soldiers and Iraqi security forces.

Most of the visitors looked weary, apparently from a flight of more than 10 hours from a military base just south of Seoul to Kuwait and an additional two-hour flight to Irbil, a Kurdish-controlled city.

After a convoy of vehicles slowly rolled on a rough asphalt road for about 20 minutes and passed zigzagged roadblocks, the final destination showed up. The one-million pyeong (3.3 million square meter) base is home to the Zaytun Division. Zaytun means olive in Arabic.

Camped on the outskirts of Irbil City, the contingent is South Korea's largest military presence on foreign soil since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

South Korea sent 3,600 troops here in September 2004 at the request of the U.S. government. There are now about 1,600 South Korean soldiers here, with the number to be reduced to 1,200 after April.

Despite the downsizing of the troops, the division commander stressed, Zatyun's commitment to carrying out peacekeeping and reconstruction tasks remains firm.

"We will put more focus on quality than quantity in our work," Maj. Gen. Hwang Jung-sun said.

The Zaytun Division is credited with successful operations in both stabilizing security conditions and winning the hearts and minds of the locals.

While much of Iraq is engulfed in violence, life in Irbil goes on in relative peace thanks to Zaytun's close cooperation with local security forces.

Not a single case of terrorism has been reported since July 2005, Hwang said.

South Korean troops have also sown the seed of hope in local residents, who went through decades of repression by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Zaytun has become a role model for other coalition forces when it comes to civil-military operations to provide education and medical services for the locals.

On the back of Zaytun's successful operations, this region is rapidly prospering. Irbil City is now lively and hectic, with new buildings springing up.

Amid a flow of investment, the number of foreign companies doing business in the region has jumped to 430 from about 100 in 2004.

Works to expand the airport also demonstrate this region's speedy development.

Next to the small airport in Irbil, a massive new terminal and a 4.8-meter-long runaway are being constructed.

By Lee Chi-dong
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr