South Korea's 2nd Disaster Relief Team Begins Operations; Resumption of Search under Discussion with Nepal

[Anchor]

South Korea's second emergency disaster relief team has begun operations to respond to the major flood damage in Nepal. Let's connect with our correspondent on the ground to ask some questions.

Correspondent Choi Go-un, has it been determined what specific activities the second relief team will undertake?

[Reporter]

Yun Ju-seok, leader of the second overseas emergency relief team, arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, this morning (September 12) and joined team members who arrived a day earlier.

Comprising a total of eight members—including officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, firefighters, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and medical personnel—the second relief team will operate for one week.

The scale is significantly smaller compared to the first team of 44 members.

Discussions are underway with the government, including the Nepalese military, to enable operations at the disaster site as quickly as possible.

Because the damage is immense—with initial recovery costs alone estimated at approximately 7 trillion won—preliminary investigations are also being launched to formulate how the South Korean government can contribute to the recovery.

[Yun Ju-seok / Leader of the 2nd Overseas Emergency Relief Team: (The goal of the second team's activities) will encompass search and rescue as well as reconstruction and recovery. We will communicate closely with Nepalese authorities and work together to fulfill our given mission.]

[Anchor]

Families of the missing are hoping for active search efforts by the government relief team. Is there a possibility that the search will resume?

[Reporter]

Private team searches to find the nine missing South Koreans are continuing through the weekend.

First, Korea South-East Power (KOEN) is searching for three of its missing employees with a workforce of around 80 people.

Starting today, an inquiry search team has also been formed.

Keeping in mind the possibility that the missing persons may have evacuated to the mountains, locals familiar with the geography are visiting surrounding villages to ask residents about their whereabouts.

Doosan Enerbility, which has six missing employees, is focusing on aerial searches by deploying one helicopter and four drone teams.

Unfortunately, neither company has yet found any traces of the missing persons.

While the families of the missing want the government to conduct active searches, it is virtually impossible for the South Korean government to independently set up a search camp or enter the site without coordination with the Nepalese government.

The emergency relief team stated that there are site constraints and that they will discuss the matter with the Nepalese government.

(Video reporting: Cho Chang-hyun and Yang Ji-hoon | Video editing: Ahn Yeo-jin | Footage courtesy of: Korea South-East Power)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.