South Korean Emergency Relief Team Begins Operations in Nepal Using Advanced Equipment

[Anchor]

One week after the major floods in Nepal, South Korea's emergency relief team has arrived in the country. Equipped with state-of-the-art search gear and rescue dogs, the relief team has launched operations to search for missing persons, including nine South Korean nationals, and provide humanitarian aid.

Kwon Min-kyu reports from Nepal.

[Reporter]

A gray aircraft lowers its altitude through thick fog and enters the runway.

South Korea's Air Force transport aircraft carrying 44 members of the emergency relief team has arrived in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

Following the Nepali government's approval of the relief team's 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.

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

Along with 5 rescue dogs, the team plans to fully mobilize advanced equipment, including high-resolution drones and DNA kits for identification.

[Lee Kyu-ho / Head of Overseas Emergency Relief Team: We have brought nearly 1,000 pieces of equipment, including search and rescue gear. For tunnel searches, we need to use 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 strategies.

They decided to set up their base camp in Battar, which offers easy access to the search areas, and dispatched 10 members from the emergency relief team ahead to the Ramche and Dhunche areas, where 6 rapid response team members are currently conducting land searches.

[Kim Min-jong / KOICA Team Leader for Overseas Emergency Relief: We will respond with humanitarian support for the suffering Nepali victims and make every effort to safely bring our citizens back home as quickly as possible.]

The emergency relief team stated that it plans to strengthen cooperation with Nepali authorities and concentrate all efforts on search and rescue operations.

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