Nepalese Military Ends Tunnel Search... S. Korean Relief Team Suspends Morning Operations

[Anchor]

Search operations to find the nine South Korean nationals missing due to the heavy floods in Nepal have faced numerous obstacles, yielding no results. Our relief team announced that there are no search plans for this morning (the 9th), while Nepalese authorities are wrapping up the search and shifting toward recovery efforts.

Reporter Kim Minpyo has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the area around the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Plant powerhouse and Yellow Bridge, where the missing South Korean nationals were suspected of taking shelter.

Yesterday, local time, two helicopters carrying our emergency relief team and the Nepalese military approached the steep and rugged mountainous region.

One helicopter landed near the powerhouse, but the other landed at a Nepalese military base camp 6 kilometers away due to a lack of a safe landing spot.

The search team that landed at the powerhouse had to search the surrounding area using drones, following the Nepalese military's assessment that on-foot searches were impossible.

Another team pushed ahead with a search along the cut mountain paths, but to no avail.

[Lee Gyu-ho / Head of Korea Disaster Relief Team: We went up to the point where the road was washed out and searched, and scanned the slope on the opposite side. No unusual signs were found (visually).]

The tunnel search, where a Chinese survivor had previously been rescued, also ran into difficulties.

[Are we going further into the search or not? Should we push it with our foot?]

The Nepalese military declared the end of the tunnel search near the weir dam, citing the slim possibility of finding survivors and the risk of secondary collapses.

Furthermore, the Nepalese military shifted its helicopter operation guidelines from search missions to the transport of relief and recovery supplies.

Our relief team stated that it has no search plans for this morning, local time.

The relief team's active deployment period runs until the 11th, and discussions to extend the dispatch have not been held so far.

The families of the nine missing South Koreans have decided to hold a press conference locally.

The families plan to share the progress of the search they witnessed on-site, as well as the difficulties they experienced along the way.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.