By Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee<\/p>\n
SEOUL, Aug 28 (Reuters) \u2013 The families of South Korean workers missing after a catastrophic flash flood in Nepal urged authorities on Friday to secure helicopter access for a search, \u200bsaying rescuers were losing critical time more than 48 hours after \u200cthe disaster.<\/p>\n
The nine missing workers, employed by Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power, were working on a major hydropower project hit by Wednesday\u2019s glacier-triggered flash flood.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur only demand is to get helicopters in the air as soon as possible,\u201d relatives of Doosan Enerbility employees told reporters, \u200caccording \u200bto the company and Yonhap News Agency, expressing frustration \u2060over what they described as \u2060a lack of visible progress despite assurances from officials.<\/p>\n
The families said they had not received sufficient information about the missing workers\u2019 whereabouts or the circumstances of the disaster, and called for search footage and other updates to \u200bbe shared promptly.<\/p>\n
They also urged South Korea to press Nepalese authorities through diplomatic channels for more active support.<\/p>\n
A South Korean rapid response team that arrived \u2060in Kathmandu on Thursday night was still \u2060awaiting flight clearance to travel to the affected area, South \u200bKorea\u2019s Foreign Ministry said. Nepal\u2019s military had restricted private helicopter operations over concerns of \u200bfurther flooding, Yonhap said.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, the ministry said Nepal had \u200cindicated it was not yet planning to accept foreign rescue teams and that it was holding discussions on the matter.<\/p>\n
Nepal\u2019s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it did not need foreign assistance for search-and-rescue operations and that it was managing \u2060the rescue efforts.<\/p>\n
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered on Thursday an all-out response to the disaster.<\/p>\n
Doosan Enerbility CEO Jeong Yeon-in said on Thursday the company was working \u2060closely with relevant authorities \u200cand would \u201cmake every possible effort\u201d to rescue employees who \u2060remained out of contact.<\/p>\n
Yoon Jang-hyun, head of new growth business \u200bat \u200cKorea South-East Power, said the company would focus on searching \u200bfor its \u2060employees and assessing conditions at the site, adding that it would mobilise all its capabilities to secure their safe return.<\/p>\n
The nine South Korean workers still unaccounted for include six Doosan Enerbility employees and three employed by Korea South-East Power, the Yonhap News Agency said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin, Heejin Kim and Joyce LeeEditing by Ed \u200bDavies and Saad Sayeed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee SEOUL, Aug 28 (Reuters) \u2013 The families of South Korean workers missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[410,409,408],"class_list":["post-136631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-doosan","tag-doosan","tag-doosan-enerbility","tag-doosan-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}