Korea's 102-member rescue team to arrive in Japan

A 102-member Korean rescue team departed for Japan aboard Air Force planes Monday to help the neighboring country cope with the massive devastation left by a record earthquake and tsunami.

Three Air Force C-130 planes carrying the rescue workers took off from a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, around 8:10 a.m. and were scheduled to land at Japan's Narita airport around 10:50 a.m., the foreign ministry said.

The departure came after an advance team of five rescue workers and two search dogs arrived in Japan on Saturday. The main team's departure had originally been scheduled for Sunday night, but was delayed due to airport problems in Japan, officials said.

Three Air Force C-130 planes carrying 102-member Korean rescue workers are due to arrive at Japan's Narita airport on Monday morning. Yonhap News

The rescue team, which also includes six medical workers and an eight-person support staff, planned to leave for Yamagata later in the day aboard civilian aircraft. Yamagata is adjacent to Miyagi prefecture, one of the hardest-hit regions in the disaster.

South Korea has pledged to provide as much support as possible for Japan after a magnitude 8.9 quake struck Japan on Friday, unleashing a gigantic tsunami that swept ships, cars and homes away in the worst natural disaster to hit the country in recorded history.

By official count, about 2,300 people were killed or missing, but media reports say the number could be much higher, even over 20,000.

Japan also wrestled with the threat of possible meltdowns of two nuclear reactors at a power plant damaged by the quake after an explosion on Saturday blew off the roof and walls around one of the reactors at the plant in Fukushima, 240 kilometers north of Tokyo.

South Korea has also redirected some of its incoming shipments of liquefied natural gas to send them to Japan to help address potential energy shortages after some nuclear power plants shut down. Officials said the government is also in talks with Japan's government to send water and other relief supplies.

Seoul has issued a series of travel advisories for Japan, putting areas within 30 kilometers of the plant under the second-highest advisory, Level 3, that calls for citizens to avoid traveling there as much as possible. A Level 2 advisory was issued for provinces around the plant, and a Level 1 advisory was issued for Tokyo and nearby Chiba.It was the first time South Korea has issued a travel advisory for Tokyo.

The scale of South Korean casualties in the disaster remained unclear. But at least 60 people from 21 South Korean households in the coastal regions of Japan have remained out of contact since the disaster, officials said.

(Yonhap News)