Korea South-East Power Expands Response Team in Nepal; Acting President Cho Younghyuk Dispatched On-Site

Nine Additional Members Sent as Second Response Team

Local Response Force Expanded to 20

24-Hour Cooperation with Government, Embassy, and Doosan Enerbility

Yonhap News

Korea South-East Power has increased its on-site response personnel, including sending Acting CEO Cho Younghyuk directly to Nepal, in order to search for employees who lost contact after a massive flood occurred at the hydropower plant construction site.

According to Korea South-East Power on August 31, a second local response team, consisting of nine members led by Acting CEO Cho, departed for Nepal the previous day.

Immediately after the incident on August 27, Korea South-East Power dispatched a first response team of six to Nepal. In addition, one employee from the Pakistan branch office joined the effort, totaling seven people who initially assessed the situation on-site and established cooperation with the Nepalese government and related organizations.

With the additional dispatch of the second response team of nine, the on-site response group now consists of 16 people. Including four local employees of the Nepalese branch, a total of 20 personnel are involved in the recovery, rescue, and relief operations.

Notably, Acting CEO Cho will personally lead operations at the scene, directing the search and rescue mission for those missing. The second response team has been organized mainly with employees who have previous work experience in Nepal and are familiar with the local situation, terrain, and culture. Korea South-East Power explained that, given the poor local transportation and communication environment caused by flood damage, personnel were selected for their ability to actively support search and relief work on-site.

Earlier, the Nepal UT-1 hydropower project site, which is currently under development by Korea South-East Power, suffered damage from a large-scale flood originating upstream on August 26. At the time, three of the seven employees dispatched locally lost contact, prompting the activation of an emergency response system and the initiation of rescue and search operations.

Acting CEO Cho stated, "We will do our utmost to bring our employees back to their families and colleagues as soon as possible through search and rescue efforts," and added, "We will spare no human or material resources from the company to ensure on-site safety and a swift recovery from the accident."

Korea South-East Power plans to maintain 24-hour cooperation with the government rapid response team, the Korean Embassy in Nepal, and Doosan Enerbility, in order to support missing persons searches and damage recovery efforts.

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