After plans to use helicopters to search for the nine Koreans who remain unaccounted for after disastrous flooding in Nepal were frustrated, the Korean government’s joint rapid response team began to search by land on Aug. 31, 2026. (Yonhap)
At 10:30 am Monday, a Korean search-and-rescue convoy suddenly ground to a halt on a mountainside in Nepal’s Rasuwa District after spending about 30 minutes navigating a bumpy gravel road to bypass a blocked section of highway.“The road looks like it'll get more rugged and difficult to navigate,” said Cho Hyeon-mun, a member of the rapid response team dispatched to Nepal by the Korean government. Back home, Cho serves as head of the emergency rescue headquarters of the National Fire Agency. This search by land to find Korean nationals who were reported missing in the floods was hard from the start. The team from the Korean government and embedded reporters got out of their cars and examined the road, which was littered with rocks and mud puddles. Thick, low-hanging clouds shrouded the slopes of the towering mountains.
Cho Hyeon-mun, a senior fire service official leading Korea’s rapid response team in Nepal, speaks to the press about leading a team to search for the missing Koreans on foot. (Jeong Bong-bi/Hankyoreh)
