“The 2015 earthquake was a natural disaster. This catastrophic flood, however, is essentially man-made.” Kang Dae-seok, head of the Nepal branch of the Um Hong Gil Human Foundation, made the comparison during an interview in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Looking back on the two massive disasters that struck Nepal over the past 11 years, he warned that man-made disasters could happen again unless adequate preparations were made. The two disasters may seem similar in that both claimed thousands of lives, Kang said. But unlike the 2015 earthquake, which was beyond human control, the recent flooding was triggered by a glacial collapse linked to global warming and therefore bears humanity’s fingerprints. The Um Hong Gil Human Foundation’s Nepal branch is where Kang heads conducts educational aid projects in Nepal, including overseeing the building of 19 schools across the country. Kang is an expert on local affairs, having served as a secretary at the Korean Embassy in Nepal during the 2015 earthquake. The foundation is currently helping Korean companies affected by the flooding assess conditi
