1. The government of the Republic of Korea held an urgent private-public consultation on overseas emergency relief on April 27. At the meeting presided over by Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul, the participants decided to dispatch a Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) to Nepal, which had sustained massive damage from a recent earthquake.

◦ It was decided at the meeting that the KDRT will be composed of 40 members. A five-member advance team tasked with preparing for the KDRT’s operations in Nepal, together with a ten-member KDRT search and rescue team, will leave for Nepal via a civilian aircraft at 21:00, April 27.

* Prior to the planned dispatch of the advance team, its leader, a Foreign Ministry official, was dispatched to the country earlier in the day.

◦ The need for search and rescue operations for the victims is rapidly growing in Nepal amid its poor conditions for rescue operations. Given the situation, the ROK government decided to send the advance team and part of the KDRT search and rescue team, judging that it would be more effective to conduct urgently needed rescue activities while preparing for all-out KDRT operations at the same time.

2. The ROK government, drawing upon the post-operation report of the advance team and the rescue team, will determine the composition of the 30-member second batch of the KDRT and the timing of its dispatch to Nepal. The government is mulling sending the second batch of the KDRT via a Korean flag carrier that will operate a flight to Nepal on May 1.

◦ After a review of the situation in Nepal such as its needs, the ROK government will look into the possibility of including search and rescue officers and medical personnel in the second batch of the KDRT.

3. Given the increasing civilian assistance in emergency relief operations in Nepal, the participants of today’s meeting agreed to effectively conduct relief activities through active private-public cooperation.

4. The KDRT, after consultations with its counterparts from other countries dispatched to Nepal and the UN, will determine its region of operations as well as its mission. It will also work closely with relief workforce from the international community and the Nepalese government.

5. Vice Foreign Minister Cho, who presided over today’s meeting, commented that the ROK government, by successfully completing its emergency relief operations in the fight against the Ebola crisis, had opened a new chapter in the history of humanitarian assistance. He asked each government agency to render active cooperation so as for the ROK, through its KDRT dispatch to Nepal, to widely convey to the international community its strong willingness to play a role in overcoming humanitarian disasters of the international community.


* unofficial translation