Nepal declines foreign rescue aid, Korea trying

Kathmandu: Nepal has declined foreign rescue aid following a devastating flash flood, despite numerous offers from countries with nationals missing in the disaster, according to its foreign ministry. The flood, which swept through areas including Rasuwa district near the Chinese border, leveled entire towns, damaged hydropower projects, and killed nearly 500 people.

Hundreds of foreign nationals remain missing, including South Koreans, who have dispatched a response team to Nepal and will also deploy a disaster relief team. However, the foreign ministry stated that Nepal is managing the rescue efforts independently, with security agencies conducting the search and rescue operation. A foreign ministry spokesperson, Lok Bahadur Chhetri, said that Nepal does not require such assistance at the moment.

South Korea's foreign ministry acknowledged Nepal's decision not to accept foreign rescue teams and pledged to continue negotiations on the matter. Seoul has pledged $1 million in humanitarian assistance through international organizations. Several countries, including India, China, the United States, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, have offered their search-and-rescue teams to assist Nepal.

Former Nepali ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Dinesh Bhattarai, suggested that Nepal's reluctance to accept foreign teams may be due to the sensitive nature of the flood-hit Rasuwa district, which borders China's Tibet region. However, Chhetri attributed the decision to Nepal's own handling of the operation by its rescue teams.