Government Response Team Arrives in Dunche After 10.5-Hour Journey; Drone Search Conducted at Accident Site

[Anchor]

The government response team, which set out on a land search to find nine South Korean nationals missing in Nepal, has arrived in Dunche, close to the accident site. They deployed drones to conduct a ground search, but no clear results have been obtained yet.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu has more from Nepal.

[Reporter]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the government's rapid response team, which embarked on its first land search yesterday (the 31st)—the sixth day since communication was lost with nine South Korean employees following massive floods in Nepal—arrived in Dunche near the accident site after about ten and a half hours.

With no progress in the search for the missing persons, nine members of the government response team left the South Korean Embassy in Nepal in Kathmandu by car, heading toward the vicinity of the hydroelectric power plant construction site where the South Koreans went missing. They passed Ramche, their initially planned primary search point, and moved further to Dunche, which is closer to the accident site.

It was reported that immediately upon arrival, they conducted a ground search using drones brought directly from South Korea, though no significant results have been discovered yet.

An official from the response team explained, "The Nepalese military authorities expressed their willingness to cooperate regarding the land search," adding, "We have decided to join forces with the Nepalese military to search for the missing persons."

The response team plans to set up a base camp in Dunche to stay overnight while continuing search operations.

Newly appointed Ambassador Park Jae-kyung, who entered Nepal yesterday, met with reporters at a hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal, stating, "This is a grave situation," and emphasizing that prioritizing the search for the missing persons would be his top priority.

[Park Jae-kyung / South Korean Ambassador to Nepal: I feel a heavy heart taking office amid such a grave situation. Given this extraordinary circumstance, I will do my absolute best with an extraordinary resolve to provide support and efforts for the search and rescue of our citizens.]

Having conducted a total of five helicopter searches so far, including two times yesterday, the joint government-corporate response team plans to continue its search for the missing individuals from both the ground and the air today.

(Video by: Seol Chi-hwan, Kang Si-woo | Video Editing by: Kim Byung-jik)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.