South Korean officials left for earthquake-ravaged Haiti for inspection earlier Friday before sending troops to Haiti as part of the United Nations-led operation there, the government said.

The 9-member inspection team consisting of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be inspecting situations in the disaster-prone Caribbean nation, leveled by the magnitude-7.0 earthquake earlier January, according to the foreign ministry.

About 200 South Korean troops the government is planning to send will be stationed in Haiti as part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the ministry said.

Local media have reported that the government will submit a bill on planned troop dispatch to parliament in February, so that the forces can be deployed as late as by March.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2010)