[Anchor]

Nepal has reversed its stance and decided to allow foot searches in the Ramche area, where missing South Koreans may have taken refuge. The searches are expected to begin today, September 8. The death toll from the devastating floods in Nepal has risen to 1,398, with 5,515 people still missing.

Reporter Min Gyeongho has the details.

[Reporter]

Inside a tunnel filled with boulders larger than a human body, a rescue worker squeezes through a tight space barely wide enough for a head to pass.

["It's spacious inside. Should we search further in or not?" / "Hold on, hold on!"]

This footage shows members of South Korea's Overseas Emergency Relief Team conducting additional searches yesterday near the weir dam in Nepal where one of the missing South Koreans used to work.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that ten relief workers conducted searches three times. After passing through flooded entrances with deep water, they encountered areas blocked by boulders and ultimately had to withdraw.

No special findings, such as survivors, were made, and the Nepalese military notified the team that further searches in the tunnel near the weir dam would be dangerous and the likelihood of finding survivors was slim, meaning no additional searches would be conducted.

In fact, some of our rescue workers who entered the tunnel suffered from headaches and abdominal pain after ingesting contaminated water.

However, the Nepalese military has permitted foot searches in Ramche, Rasuwa, which it had previously prohibited citing safety risks.

Ramche is located about two kilometers away from the camp where the missing South Koreans stayed, and families of the missing had demanded searches there, raising the possibility that the missing individuals might have evacuated to the area.

An official from the government's rapid response team said, "During the foreign ministerial talks, the Nepalese side abruptly accepted our request," adding, "Searches are expected to take place starting today."

At a displaced persons shelter set up in Battar, where the base camp for the South Korean relief team is located, heartfelt wishes continued for even just one more person to return safely.

[Tilok Tamang / Husband of a missing person at the main camp: I express my respect to the South Korean relief team for doing their utmost in the search regardless of nationality. I sincerely hope my wife returns safely as well.]

The Nepalese government designated yesterday, the 13th day since the disaster, as an official day of mourning and flew flags at half-mast at government offices.

So far, the death toll from the massive floods in Nepal has been tallied at 1,398, with 5,515 missing.

(Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin, Footage Provided by: Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT))