South Korea plans to send an assessment team to Iraq next month to help determine whether to end or extend its 1,200-troop mission there, a Defense Ministry official said Friday. The team of about 10 officials will make a weeklong trip to Iraq, and their findings will be reflected in a report to parliament next month. The ministry originally planned to complete the report this month, but postponed it saying it needed more time to assess the situation in Iraq. The official said the report would now be submitted by Oct. 15. South Korea appears to be increasingly leaning toward extending the deployment, with recent news reports suggesting the government had reached or was close to reaching such a decision.