Foreign Minister Cho Hyun answers reporters' questions after arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday (local time) to discuss the search for nine South Koreans missing after catastrophic flooding. [Yonhap]
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun answers reporters' questions after arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday (local time) to discuss the search for nine South Koreans missing after catastrophic flooding. [Yonhap]

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday (local time) to discuss the search for nine South Koreans missing after devastating floods struck the country.

Cho flew from Incheon International Airport aboard a Korean Air flight and landed at Tribhuvan International Airport. Speaking to reporters immediately after arrival, he said he was scheduled to meet with Nepali Foreign Minister Sishir Kanel on Sunday and hold talks with several other Nepali government officials.

Cho said he planned to discuss with the Nepali government not only the immediate crisis response but also a long-term cooperative relationship that would include reconstruction efforts.

Cho is expected to ask Kanel to ensure that search operations for the nine missing South Koreans proceed smoothly. He had already spoken with Kanel by phone twice — on Aug. 27 and Aug. 31 — requesting an intensive search of the areas where the Koreans went missing.

The Nepali military recently barred South Korea's Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) from conducting on-foot searches in the mountainous area where the Koreans disappeared. Cho said he planned to work with the Nepali side to allow the broadest possible search, taking into account current weather and terrain constraints.

"We will do our utmost," Cho said. "I promise we will carry out rescue operations as quickly as possible so that they can survive somehow."

Cho will remain in Nepal through Monday. He plans to meet with the families of the missing South Koreans and representatives of South Korean companies, and to encourage the KDRT personnel deployed to the scene.

[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

The nine missing South Koreans were working on the construction of the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydropower plant in the Rasuwa district of Bagmati Province in north-central Nepal. Six are employees of Doosan Enerbility and three work for Korea South-East Power (KOEN).

On Saturday, a joint rescue team of Nepali military personnel and KDRT specialists rescued a Chinese man from a tunnel at the UT-1 construction site.

The Nepali military said the joint team pulled the man from a 225-meter-long tunnel and that his condition was being assessed.

The rescue marked the ninth survivor KDRT has pulled to safety since the team was established in 2007. The team previously rescued eight people during the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.

The catastrophic flooding that struck upstream in the Himalayan mountain region on Aug. 26 has killed 1,375 people and left 5,531 missing across Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region as of Saturday.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com