Flood Hits Nepal Hydropower Construction Site... Three KOSPO Employees Missing

Massive Flood, Presumed to Originate from Glacial Lake, Strikes Upstream of UT-1 Site
Three Out of Seven Local Staff Unreachable; Nepalese Military Rescue Helicopters Deployed
KOSPO Activates Emergency Response Headquarters; Plans to Dispatch Ad

Officials are preparing for the meeting of the Overseas Koreans Protection Headquarters regarding missing Korean nationals in the Nepal floods, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 26th. August 26, 2026. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

A large-scale flood occurred at the construction site of the Nepal hydropower plant being developed by Korea South-East Power, leaving three local staff members dispatched to Nepal out of contact. In response, Korea South-East Power has launched an emergency response headquarters and begun search and rescue operations, including deploying Nepalese military rescue helicopters.

According to Korea South-East Power on August 26, at approximately 9 a.m. local time, a sudden, large-scale flood took place upstream of the Nepal UT-1 hydropower plant construction project. Korea South-East Power believes that the flood damage at the site was caused by a major inflow presumed to have originated from a glacial lake.

Currently, out of the seven Korea South-East Power employees dispatched locally, three are unaccounted for. Immediately after the accident, Korea South-East Power established an emergency response system led by Acting CEO Cho Younghyuk and set up an emergency headquarters to operate a 24-hour response system.

Personnel from the local subsidiary in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, were also urgently dispatched to the accident site. The company has established an emergency cooperation system among its headquarters, local subsidiary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Nepal, and the Nepalese military in order to locate and rescue the missing employees.

In particular, the Nepalese military has urgently deployed rescue helicopters to the site to search for survivors and carry out rescue operations. Korea South-East Power is also planning to dispatch additional headquarters staff to Nepal on August 27. The company plans to set up a rescue camp on site and continue search and rescue activities, as well as provide any necessary assistance.

A Korea South-East Power official stated, "We are concentrating all resources on the search for survivors and rescue operations through close cooperation with related organizations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.