"Nepali Military Helicopter and One Chartered Helicopter Search the Site"

[Anchor]

The government's rapid response team dispatched to Nepal is making all-out efforts to find nine missing South Korean nationals. A Nepali military helicopter and another helicopter secured locally by a South Korean company conducted a search, while the response team is also considering additionally deploying an Air Force transport aircraft.

Reporting from Nepal, this is Kwon Min-kyu.

[Reporter]

At 8:00 p.m. local time yesterday (the 28th), the government's joint rapid response team held a briefing for the South Korean press corps in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, stating that they are making all-out efforts to search for the nine missing individuals with whom contact has been lost.

[Lim Sang-woo / Head of the Government Joint Rapid Response Team: The search for the nine unreachable individuals was conducted by mobilizing Nepali military assets and one private helicopter. However, unfortunately, search operations must continue.]

The response team, together with Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power, whose employees are missing, chartered a total of six helicopters locally, but ran into restrictions imposed by the Nepali military authorities.

Due to bad weather and concerns over a secondary flood, it was reported that flight authorization was granted for one helicopter rented by the company in the afternoon.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is repeatedly requesting cooperation to obtain permission from the Nepali authorities.

The affected area is in a situation where virtually no one can access the accident site except by helicopter, as debris flow has swallowed up nearby roads.

The response team handed over a map to the Nepali authorities marked with coordinates presumed to be the location of the missing South Koreans at the time of the flood, and a Nepali military helicopter went out to search, but no specific findings have been made yet.

The nine missing individuals with whom contact remains unestablished are six employees from Doosan Enerbility and three employees from Korea South-East Power.

Meanwhile, all 10 South Korean nationals who were once isolated and then rescued have been safely transferred to safe areas, though decisions regarding their relocation to Kathmandu and repatriation have not yet been finalized.

While the response team is making efforts to launch helicopters as soon as day breaks, they are also preparing to deploy the South Korean Air Force's multi-role transport aircraft, the Cygnus, to the local site in Nepal.

(Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.