President Lee Jae-myung Presides Over Emergency Inspection Meeting; Rapid Response Team Departs for Nepal

[Anchor]

President Lee Jae-myung has postponed the scheduled meeting of senior secretaries at the Blue House today (the 27th) to preside over an emergency inspection meeting regarding the floods in Nepal. Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun is scheduled to speak with the Foreign Minister of Nepal by phone this afternoon to request cooperation, and a government rapid response team consisting of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Fire Agency, and the National Police Agency will depart for Nepal this afternoon.

Reporter Kim Jeongyun has the details.

[Reporter]

The Blue House announced that President Lee Jae-myung postponed the senior secretaries' meeting scheduled at the Blue House today to directly preside over an emergency inspection meeting regarding the casualties and damages suffered by South Korean citizens due to the floods in Nepal.

In addition, the Blue House added that, considering the ongoing all-out efforts to ensure the safety of South Korean citizens, a scheduled luncheon tomorrow between President Lee and lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Korea has also been postponed.

Previously, upon receiving reports on the local situation in Nepal yesterday, President Lee issued instructions to mobilize all available means to exert utmost efforts in searching for and rescuing the missing persons.

Last night, a meeting of the Overseas Korean Protection Countermeasures Headquarters was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul, presided over by Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and attended by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Police Agency.

Minister Cho stated that immediately after becoming aware that South Korean citizens had lost contact locally due to the floods in Nepal, he immediately requested rescue operations from the Nepalese authorities.

Minister Cho plans to hold a telephone conversation with the Foreign Minister of Nepal within today to request swift search and rescue cooperation from the Nepalese government for South Korean citizens.

A government rapid response team consisting of 11 members in total—including Lim Sang-woo, Representative for Overseas Korean Protection as the team leader, along with 4 officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 5 from the fire service, and 2 from the police—will head to Nepal this afternoon.

[Lim Sang-woo / Head of Government Rapid Response Team: "We will do our utmost to ensure that swift and safe search and rescue operations (for our citizens locally in Nepal) can be carried out."]

Departing from Incheon International Airport and transiting through Hong Kong, the team is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, this evening local time.

The rapid response team plans to move to the flood-affected areas in Nepal and embark on supporting search and rescue operations for the South Korean nationals.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.