Foreign Minister Cho Hyun: "UAE flight carrying evacuated Koreans arriving soon"... Another 290-seat charter to depart tomorrow

[Financial News] Another chartered flight carrying hundreds of South Korean nationals stranded in the Middle East will arrive at Incheon International Airport on the afternoon of the 7th. This is the second repatriation, following the return of 372 people the previous day.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun of South Korea said at the Interagency Meeting on Measures for Overseas Koreans held on the 7th at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Jongno District, Seoul, "After my phone call with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), commercial flights operated by Etihad Airways and Emirates resumed, allowing 372 of our nationals to return home. A flight carrying a similar number of people is scheduled to arrive at Incheon International Airport in about two hours today."
Cho went on to say, "Thanks to active negotiations by our missions, we have secured a 290-seat charter flight with Etihad Airways," adding, "We are preparing for it to depart at noon tomorrow, giving priority to those with health issues, the elderly, pregnant women, and infants and young children."
He also noted that a rapid response team headed by Lim Sang-woo, Government Representative for Overseas Koreans Protection and Consular Affairs, has been dispatched to Turkmenistan and Egypt, and that a second Government Joint Rapid Response Team, led respectively by Ambassador Kwon Ki-hwan and Ambassador Lee Tae-woo, has been urgently sent to the UAE.
Cho added that each embassy is doing its utmost, despite difficult conditions, to ensure the swift evacuation of South Korean nationals.
Thanks to the efforts of the embassies in Iran, the State of Israel, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Republic of Iraq, Kuwait, and the State of Qatar, more than 150 South Koreans have already been evacuated to safer neighboring countries: 25 from Iran, 66 from the State of Israel, 14 from the Kingdom of Bahrain, 5 from the Republic of Iraq, 14 from Kuwait, and 31 from the State of Qatar.
Cho said, "I would like to express my deep gratitude to our colleagues who, even as shells were falling, opened their missions and residences to protect our nationals, crossed borders together with them, and took responsibility for their safety until the very end."
rainman@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-soo Reporter