South Korea to send rescue team to Nepal over floods
The South Korean government will send an 11-member joint rapid response team to Nepal on Thursday to assist with search-and-rescue operations after major floods. Nine South Korean nationals remain out of contact in Rasuwa District, which was hit by the disaster.
As The Korea Herald reports, the team will include four Foreign Ministry officials, five firefighters and two police officers. It will be led by Lim Sang-woo, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry ambassador for the protection of Koreans overseas and consular affairs.
Route to Kathmandu
The team is scheduled to depart from Incheon Airport on a commercial flight in the afternoon and reach Kathmandu via Hong Kong. In Nepal, its members will help locate and rescue missing South Korean nationals and check the safety of Koreans in the affected areas.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Hydropower project workers
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the nine people who are out of contact were employees of the state-owned Korea South-East Power Co. and energy equipment manufacturer Doosan Enerbility. They were working on a hydropower plant project in Rasuwa District.
Another 10 South Korean nationals connected to Doosan Enerbility who were stranded in the area confirmed that they were safe. According to the ministry, they evacuated together with about 200 other workers and were awaiting rescue.
Floods and landslides in the mountainous area near Nepal’s border with Tibet washed away buildings and damaged roads and other infrastructure. According to early reports on Thursday, at least 160 people were killed by the disaster on both sides of the border, while hundreds more were missing. The numbers of dead and missing changed as information arrived from remote areas. Search-and-rescue operations are being hampered by difficult-to-access terrain, damaged roads and bridges.
