Successful Evacuation: How South Korea Brought 204 Citizens Home from the Middle East Crisis

[iNews24 reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Government military transport aircraft flew citizens who had been stranded in the Middle East home after fighting involving the U.S., Israel and Iran disrupted the region.

President Lee Jae-myung expressed his gratitude to the officials who carried out the operation.

On the afternoon of the 15th, the president posted on X (formerly Twitter) that 204 Koreans who had been isolated in the Middle East were safely brought home aboard military transport aircraft. \"I thank all the officials who worked day and night under difficult conditions to ensure the operation's success,\" he wrote.

He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force and Korean embassies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon, together with the government's joint rapid response team and the National Police Agency, pooled their efforts. He called the outcome a meaningful achievement produced by a whole-of-government, one-team response.

According to the foreign and defense ministries, a single Air Force multi-role aerial refueling and transport KC-330 \"Cygnus\" carrying 211 people — 204 Koreans, five family members with foreign nationality and two Japanese nationals — landed at Seongnam Seoul Airport at about 5:59 p.m. that day.

The Cygnus departed Korea on the morning of the 14th, arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that afternoon (local time), picked up passengers that evening and then returned to Korea.

For the operation, named \"Desert Light,\" the government requested over 10 countries along the flight path to grant airspace transit and dispatched a rapid response team to the field led by former Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong.