(4th LD) S. Korean response team heads to flood site in Nepal in search of 9 missing

On August 29, South Korean rescue officials, comprising the government rapid response team, embarked on a mission to Nepal via two chartered helicopters to locate nine missing nationals from the devastating flash floods. The team, each with four members, took off from Kathmandu and made their way to the flood site in Nepal's north-central Himalayan border area, where the nine missing individuals were believed to be.

Among those still missing were six employees of Doosan Enerbility Co. and three from Korea South-East Power Co., all of whom were working at a hydroelectric power plant construction site in Rasuwa district when the floods hit on Wednesday. Earlier, ten other Doosan workers had been moved to safety from another location. The South Korean government response team encountered challenges in reaching the flood sites due to Nepali authorities restricting foreign access to the region, citing unpredictable weather and the risk of further flooding.

Local authorities also granted clearance to search teams from Korea South-East Power and Doosan, who were preparing to commence their own searches on Saturday. However, unfavorable weather conditions in the morning and subsequent blocking of foreign-flagged helicopters by Nepali authorities led to the rescheduling of search attempts to Sunday.

Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won arrived in Kathmandu late Saturday to lend support to the search operations. Additionally, a team of nine government officials, including firefighters, also departed for Kathmandu on Saturday to join the 11-member response team already in Nepal. The government and corporate rescue teams have procured six helicopters for the search efforts as the floods have rendered roads and bridges unusable.

Seoul has pledged to deploy a Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) if Nepali authorities grant permission, with Seoul's foreign ministry expressing readiness to dispatch the KDRT at any time once the proposal is accepted. Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal had earlier stated that while Nepal prioritizes military and police-led search and rescue operations due to the region's challenging terrain and weather, they would request foreign assistance only if necessary.

The government and corporate rescue teams are contemplating expanding the search along the Trishuli River, preparing for the possibility that the missing individuals might have been carried downstream. The return journey for the 10 rescued Koreans is yet to be determined, with their health conditions being assessed before any air travel could take place.

In Seoul, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun held a meeting with family members of the missing individuals. The death toll from the catastrophic floods has surpassed 600, with around 3,000 others still unaccounted for, according to foreign media reports. Fears of secondary flooding are increasing as barrier lakes, formed by debris from the collapsed Himalayan glacier that triggered the initial floods, begin to overflow.