Korea's 2nd Nepal relief team to return; efforts to locate 9 missing Koreans to continue

Korea will maintain a joint government response team in Nepal to continue efforts to locate nine Korean nationals who have remained missing since massive floods hit the country last month, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. The move comes as the second contingent of the Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) is set to wrap up its seven-day mission later in the day and return home, in line with a decision made by a joint public-private emergency relief council last week, according to the ministry. Nine Koreans — six employees of Doosan Enerbility and three of Korea South-East Power — went missing Aug. 26 after massive floods and landslides struck Rasuwa District near the Nepal-Tibet border while they were working at a hydropower plant construction site. The government response team, which was dispatched earlier for search-and-rescue operations separately from the KDRT, will remain in Nepal and work closely with Nepalese authorities, while also supporting the families of the missing, the ministry said. The team will consist of eight members — three from the ministry, two from the Nat