South Korea is dispatching nine additional members of a joint government rapid response team to Nepal to help search for nine Korean nationals who have been unreachable since massive flooding.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 29th that the additional team, made up of one ministry official and eight personnel from the National Fire Agency, would leave for Nepal that afternoon. The group was scheduled to depart Incheon International Airport at 2:05 p.m. and arrive in Kathmandu at 5:15 p.m. local time.
The government sent a first joint rapid response team of 11 people, including officials from the foreign ministry, the National Fire Agency and the Korean National Police Agency, on the 27th. The latest dispatch brings the total number of government rapid response personnel on the ground in Nepal to 20.
Nine Korean nationals — six employees of Doosan Enerbility and three from Korea South-East Power — have been out of contact for a fourth day since flooding struck the border area between Nepal and Tibet, China, on the 26th.
The first team has been asking the Nepalese military for flight clearance to reach the site by private helicopter. The government has repeatedly urged Nepalese authorities to concentrate the search on the expected locations and coordinates of the missing that the Korean side has provided.
At a briefing in Kathmandu a day earlier, the team said the search for the nine missing nationals was being conducted using Nepalese military assets and private helicopters. It added that it would make every effort to ensure the search proceeded swiftly the following day as well.
