[Anchor]

Search operations to find nine South Korean nationals missing in the heavy flooding in Nepal are facing numerous hurdles and have yet to yield results. Our relief team announced that there are no search plans for this morning (the 9th), while Nepalese authorities are concluding the search and shifting toward recovery efforts.

Reporter Kim Minpyo has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the area around the powerhouse of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Plant and Yellow Bridge, where the missing South Korean nationals are suspected to have taken 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 in the powerhouse area, while the other landed at a Nepalese military base camp 6 kilometers away due to the 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 ground searches on foot were impossible.

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

[Lee Kyu-ho / Head of Korea Disaster Relief Team: We went up as far as the washed-out section of the road to conduct the search and thoroughly inspected the opposite slope. No unusual findings were observed (visually).]

The tunnel search, where a Chinese survivor was previously rescued, also ran into obstacles.

[Should we go deeper into the search or not? Should we push it with our feet?]

The Nepalese military declared an end to the search in the tunnel 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 transporting relief and recovery supplies.

Our relief team stated that there were no search plans for this morning, local time.

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

Families of the nine missing South Koreans plan to hold a press conference locally.

The families intend to share the search progress they witnessed on the ground as well as the difficulties they experienced during the process.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol)