Foreign Ministry, National Fire Agency deploy 9 more personnel

Helicopters, drones to be used in search along upper and lower Trishuli River

Homes and vehicles lie damaged along the Trishuli River in Nepal's Nuwakot district following a flash flood on Sept. 6 (local time). [AP]
Homes and vehicles lie damaged along the Trishuli River in Nepal's Nuwakot district following a flash flood on Sept. 6 (local time). [AP]

South Korea is sending an additional joint rapid-response team to Nepal to bolster search and rescue efforts for nine South Korean nationals who went missing in the country's massive floods.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday it plans to dispatch a nine-member joint rapid-response team — comprising one Foreign Ministry official and eight National Fire Agency personnel — to Nepal that afternoon.

The team departed Incheon International Airport at 2 p.m. and was expected to arrive in Kathmandu at around 5 p.m.

The nine missing South Koreans are employees who had been working on a hydroelectric power plant construction project in Nepal — six from Doosan Enerbility and three from Korea South-East Power (KOEN).

All nine remain out of contact. Ten other South Koreans who had been stranded alongside them have since moved to safety.

Earlier, the government dispatched an 11-member rapid-response team on Thursday, led by Foreign Ministry representative Im Sang-woo, who oversees overseas Korean protection and consular affairs. With the latest deployment, the total number of response personnel on the ground rises to 20.

The additional team will join existing personnel in supporting search and rescue operations for the nine missing South Koreans.

Ground access to the affected area is effectively impossible, making helicopter transport necessary, but Nepali authorities have restricted helicopter flights by foreign nationals, citing the risk of secondary flooding.

The government response team, along with Doosan Enerbility and KOEN, had secured six helicopters in Kathmandu, but Nepali authorities cleared only one — operated by KOEN — for search operations on Friday.

As of Saturday, government-side helicopters had yet to receive flight clearance, while one Doosan Enerbility helicopter had been approved.

Doosan Enerbility plans to operate its helicopter once Nepali authorities grant permission. Drones will also be deployed alongside helicopters to search areas where the missing may have taken shelter.

The government and corporate response teams are also considering searching both the upper and lower reaches of the Trishuli River simultaneously, in case the missing were swept downstream in a worst-case scenario.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met Saturday with families of the missing who remain in South Korea. Families of four of the nine missing are currently in Nepal, while the remaining five families are in South Korea.

The death toll from massive flooding that struck the Himalayan region along the Nepal-China border has risen to 584 across the two countries as of Friday (local time), with the number of missing approaching 2,500.


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