1. The government of the Republic of Korea, having sent the first, second and third groups of the Korean Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) to the Philippines to support the latter country’s efforts to recover from Typhoon Haiyan from November 15 through December 8, has decided to dispatch its fourth 17-member group to the country to carry out relief and other recovery operations from December 6 through 15.

o Like the third group, the fourth group will be composed of officials from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Medical Center and the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare. The group will depart from Incheon International Airport on December 6 and arrive in Tacloban on December 7.

o After handing over its mission to its successor, the third group will return home on December 8.

2. Given that the activities of the previous groups of the KDRT have been highly commended and the demand for medical services is growing in the Philippines, the fourth group, like the third one, will largely consist of medical staff.

o The Philippine authorities spoke highly of the KDRT’s operations, choosing the ROK as one of the countries that provided best medical services in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

3. As of December 4, the 110 members of the first, second and third groups of the KDRT have provided medical treatment to and performed surgeries on 5,233 people; recovered the bodies of 145 people; conducted 47 rounds of quarantine operations; and took safety measures twice. They also donated search and rescue equipment and medical equipment to the Philippines.

4. The ROK government decided on November 12 to offer five million US dollars in humanitarian assistance to the Philippines to help it recover from the typhoon. The Foreign Ministry will also provide the Philippines with 20 million US dollars of assistance over next three years (2014-2016) to support the country’s recovery and reconstruction efforts. 


                         Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation