Nepal Allows Flood Response Teams from Four Countries Including South Korea... Government Dispatches Additional Response Team

Nepal Partially Reverses Decision to Reject Foreign Aid

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dispatches 20-Member Team for Search and Rescue of 9 Missing Nationals

As the death toll continues to rise due to massive flooding in the Himalayan mountainous region along the Nepal-China border, the Nepalese government has partially reversed its earlier decision not to accept assistance from foreign search and rescue teams. The government has now decided to dispatch an additional joint rapid response team to support the search and rescue efforts for the nine missing Korean nationals.

According to the Kathmandu Post on August 29 (local time), the Nepalese government has announced that it will allow limited support from foreign experts specifically for internal rescue operations in hydropower plant tunnels, DNA testing, and forensic investigations in the affected areas. The government has approved expert support from four countries: South Korea, India, China, and Australia.

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The previous day, the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated that, while international financial support was needed, it would not immediately accept foreign assistance for search and rescue operations and had refused such offers. The Kathmandu Post reported that, in addition to these four countries, other nations have also requested that their teams be allowed to participate in the search and rescue operations, but these requests have not been accepted by the Nepalese government.

The Kathmandu Post noted that the Nepalese government appears to have reversed its stance due to strong diplomatic pressure from countries whose nationals are among the missing from the flood. A senior official from the Nepalese government stated, "We have faced intense pressure from countries with missing nationals to allow at least their search and rescue teams and some specialists to enter the disaster site," adding, "We have allowed limited entry for experts in certain fields."

As a result, the four countries, including South Korea, will now be able to dispatch experts skilled in tunnel rescue and DNA analysis. Currently, nine Korean nationals remain unaccounted for due to the flooding. Another ten Koreans, who had been stranded, have safely relocated. These Korean nationals are employees of Korea South-East Power and Doosan Enerbility, who were building a local hydropower plant.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would send an additional government joint rapid response team to Nepal, consisting of one official from the Ministry and eight members from the National Fire Agency. The additional team is scheduled to depart from Incheon Airport at 2 p.m. and arrive in Kathmandu, Nepal, around 5 p.m. on the same day.

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Previously, on the 27th, the government had dispatched a rapid response team of 11 members to Nepal, led by Lim Sangwoo, director for overseas Korean protection and consular affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The newly dispatched nine members plan to join the existing team in the search and rescue operations for the missing individuals.

On the 27th, Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun had a phone conversation with Nepalese Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud, during which he requested active assistance from the Nepalese government to help the dispatched rapid response team successfully search for and rescue the nine missing Koreans. Minister Cho also met with the families of those missing in South Korea on the same day.

Meanwhile, the Nepalese military authorities are currently attempting to rescue more than 100 people trapped inside the tunnel of the Uttarkanya Trishuli (UT)-1 hydropower plant, which has been flooded. According to the Kathmandu Post, the large-scale flooding that occurred in northern Bagmati Province on August 26 claimed over 550 lives by the 28th. A total of 977 people were reported missing, including 517 foreign nationals from 31 countries.

However, international news agencies such as AP and CNN have reported that the number of missing persons related to the flood could be as high as 2,500, including those missing after a landslide on the same day in Gyirong County, Rikaze City of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, near the border. AP reported, "The combined local figures from Nepal have doubled the number of missing to 1,924, to which the 554 missing persons cited by Chinese state media should be added," adding, "Current adverse weather conditions are hampering aerial rescue operations."

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