Development aid

Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday that a joint government civilian consultative body made the decision to deploy the team, composed of officials from government ministries and related agencies, after Nepal requested assistance.

The 44-member team headed by the Ministry's Director General for Development Cooperation, Lee Kyu-ho, is scheduled to depart via a military transport aircraft Tuesday evening.

Over the next 10 days or so, the team will search for missing people in cooperation with the Nepali government, including nine South Koreans who were building a hydroelectric power plant in the Rasua district when the floods hit.

Seoul's joint response team in Nepal has yet to uncover any leads in the search for nine missing South Koreans despite conducting helicopter and drone searches.