South Korea's education chief vowed that utmost efforts would be applied to searching for four teachers who went missing in an avalanche last Friday in northwestern Nepal.

On a visit to the response headquarters set up at South Chungcheong Province's Office of Education on Monday, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said she plans to dispatch an additional helicopter and experts to aid ongoing search efforts in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry,

The provincial education office is also looking to send a second emergency response team to Nepal.

Yoo said the Education Ministry will provide counseling for the families of the missing, as well as other teachers from the province who were visiting Nepal for volunteer work.

The four missing South Koreans were trekking with five others on the Deurali part of the Annapurna Base Camp course when the avalanche struck them and three Nepali guides.