President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Aug.18, as South Korea kicked off its four-day annual Ulchi exercise, a nationwide emergency preparedness drill. (Pool photo via Yonhap) President Lee Jae Myung will chair an emergency meeting Thursday on search-and-rescue efforts for South Koreans who remain out of contact or stranded after deadly flash floods swept through Nepal.Lee postponed his regular weekly meeting with senior presidential aides to convene the emergency session, senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said Thursday in a statement.The presidential office also postponed a luncheon Lee had been scheduled to hold Friday with lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, in light of "government’s all-out efforts to ensure the safety of Koreans," Kang added.Nine South Koreans — affiliated with Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power — lost contact after the flooding Wednesday morning, according to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul as of Thursday morning.Another 10 South Korean workers stranded in the area have been confirmed as safe but are awaiting rescue.The workers were stationed at the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower plant construction site in Rasuwa district, a mountainous region near Nepal’s border with Tibet, about 70 kilometers from Kathmandu.After receiving a report Wednesday that South Koreans working on the hydropower plant project were missing, Lee issued an emergency directive to “put the lives and safety of our citizens first and mobilize all available resources in an all-out effort to search for and rescue the missing.”Lee also instructed officials to work closely with the Nepalese government and local authorities, provide support to the families of those missing, and take every precaution to ensure the safety of other South Koreans in the area and prevent further casualties.South Korea will dispatch an 11-member government rapid response team to Nepal on Thursday afternoon to support search-and-rescue operations for the missing Koreans, according to the Foreign Ministry.The team, led by Lim Sang-woo, the government representative for overseas Korean protection and consular affairs, will comprise four Foreign Ministry officials, five firefighters and two police officers.The team is scheduled to depart from Incheon Airport on a commercial flight Thursday afternoon, traveling via Hong Kong before arriving in Kathmandu.Doosan Enerbility is also sending an on-site response team to Nepal on Thursday afternoon, according to industry sources. Korea South-East Power will dispatch six employees from its headquarters to Nepal on Thursday afternoon to set up a local rescue coordination camp.The flooding was part of a wider disaster that swept through mountainous areas along the Nepal-China border Wednesday.As of Thursday morning, the death toll had risen to 162, according to Nepal Police. Police said 579 tourists were missing, including 466 foreign nationals from 28 countries.Foreign Minister Cho Hyun chaired an emergency meeting at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday with officials from the South Korean Embassy in Nepal, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other agencies.Cho instructed officials to put the safety of South Koreans first and mobilize all available resources for search-and-rescue operations. He also called for close coordination among the ministry, the embassy and other government agencies to ensure a swift response.Cho is scheduled to speak with his Nepalese counterpart later Thursday to request the Nepalese government’s cooperation in the search-and-rescue effort.