Seven of the eight South Koreans who had been missing since the weekend off the coast of Antarctica were rescued by Russian and Chilean teams on Monday, but one of them was found dead, officials in Seoul said on Tuesday (Dec 10).

The dead was identified as Chun Jae-gtu, 27, a researcher at the King Sejong Station in Antarctic.Four of the eight missing were found by a Russian rescue team Monday morning, while the other three was rescued by a Chilean team Monday night near the King George Island, officials said.

According to the officials, the problems began on Saturday when two boats, each carrying three researchers, departed from the Chilean base at King George Island. The Koreans had just unloaded a group of 24 scientists who were scheduled to fly back to Korea from the airstrip located there.

One of the two boats made it back to King Sejong Station safely, but the second boat never arrived.

It went missing at around 1 p.m.

Then on Sunday, the rescue team of five that was sent to the area where the last contact was made also went missing after radioing that their boat had capsized in rough seas, one and half hours after their departure.

``It had been a very sunny day, but right before the accident the weather took a violent turn, with a fierce snowstorm lashing the area,’’ Nam Sang-heon, a researcher at the Sejong base told The Korea Times in a telephone interview.

``In their last radio contact, the three said they had landed and were heading to the nearby Chinese camp,’’ said Nam.

But the five members of rescue team also went missing.

Members of the Chinese, Chilean, Russian, Uruguayan and Argentine camps in Antarctica were helping out with the search on both sea and land. Nam said that the first hours were critical, pointing to the freezing temperatures and strong winds prevailing in the area at the time.

The Sejong base is operated by the state-run Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute. Twenty-nine Korean researchers and staffers are currently working there.

In Seoul, the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry asked the governments of South American countries to do the best they could, while an emergency meeting was held to deal with the emergency situation. Chile, Argentine and Uruguay have naval and air force bases in the area.