South Korea's Emergency Relief Team Begins Operations in Nepal Using Advanced Equipment

[Anchor]

One week after devastating floods struck Nepal, South Korea's emergency relief team arrived in the country early this morning. Equipped with cutting-edge equipment and search dogs, the team has officially launched search and rescue operations for missing persons, including nine South Korean nationals.

Kwon Min-kyu reports from Nepal.

[Reporter]

A gray aircraft lowers its altitude through thick fog and touches down on the runway.

Carrying 44 members of the emergency relief team, a South Korean Air Force transport aircraft, the Cygnus, departed from South Korea and arrived in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu early this morning.

Following the Nepalese government's approval of the relief team dispatch one week after the massive floods, South Korea has become the third country, following China and India, to directly conduct relief operations on the ground in Nepal.

Composed of 3 Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, 4 Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) staff members, and 37 firefighters from the National Fire Agency, the relief team will be deployed to search for missing persons, including 9 South Koreans, and assist with flood damage recovery.

Along with 5 search dogs, the team plans to mobilize advanced equipment such as high-resolution drones and DNA kits for identity verification.

[Lee Gyu-ho / Head of the Overseas Emergency Relief Team : The equipment we brought amounts to nearly 1,000 items of search and rescue equipment. When searching inside tunnels, we have equipment like endoscopes to check inside, and thermal imaging cameras are used to detect whether people are present or not.]

Upon arriving in Nepal, the emergency relief team held a joint meeting with the rapid response team to share the current situation and discuss search operation plans.

They decided to set up their base camp in Battar, which offers easy access to the search areas, and initially dispatched 10 members of the emergency relief team to Ramche and Dhunche, where the rapid response team is currently conducting ground searches.

[Kim Min-jong / KOICA Team Leader for the Overseas Emergency Relief Team : We will respond with humanitarian support for the suffering Nepalese victims and do our utmost to safely bring our nationals back home as quickly as possible.]

The emergency relief team stated that it plans to strengthen cooperation with Nepalese authorities and pour all its efforts into search and rescue operations.

(Camera Reporter: Seol Chi-hwan, Kang Si-woo | Video Editing: Cho Mu-hwan, Design: Lee Ga-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.