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🇰🇷 South Korea /Disasters & Emergencies

Korean search team prepares to go on foot for missing flood victims in Nepal

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

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  • A South Korean rapid response team began a land search in Nepal after helicopter plans to locate nine missing Koreans were frustrated.
  • The team faced blocked roads, rocks, mud, unstable weather and limited communications while travelling toward Ramche in Rasuwa District.
  • It set up a camp near the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project and began searching with foot patrols and drones.

A South Korean search convoy stopped on a mountainside in Nepal after about 30 minutes on a rough gravel road, forcing rescuers to consider continuing on foot to reach nine Koreans missing after severe flooding.

The joint rapid response team left Kathmandu on Aug. 31 for Ramche in Rasuwa District. A blocked highway forced the convoy onto a detour, but that route soon became difficult to navigate because of rocks and mud. Thick clouds covered the surrounding mountain slopes as the team examined the road.

The road looks like it will get more rugged and difficult to navigate.

— Cho Hyeon-munThe South Korean rapid response team leader described the road conditions during the land search.

Cho Hyeon-mun, who leads the team and heads the National Fire Agency’s emergency rescue headquarters at home, said the road would likely become more difficult. He asked reporters to withdraw for their safety while the team searched for a route to the site.

We have no choice but to keep going to find a route to the search site, but we request that media personnel withdraw for their own safety.

— Cho Hyeon-munCho asked reporters to leave as the team tried to reach the search area.

The team, made up of Cho and nine other members, established a camp in northern Ramche about 1.8 kilometers from the Upper Trishuli 1 hydroelectric plant. Nine employees of Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power, which are involved in the project, are presumed missing there. Rescuers began patrolling on foot and using drones.

The land search offered fewer restrictions than helicopter operations, which face tighter limits from Nepal’s government. Damaged roads, the risk of further flooding, deep mountain terrain, unreliable communications and rapidly changing weather continued to hinder the effort. Cho said the team would proceed on foot if vehicles could not reach the target area.

This could be a difficult process, but we’ll do our best to reach Ramche.

— Cho Hyeon-munCho described the team’s effort to reach the village where the search would begin.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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