(Photo: Yonhap)
Rescuers have halted the search for a missing South Korean mountaineer in the Himalayas at the request of his family.
Kim Hong-bin went missing on July 18 after scaling the 8,047-meter-high Broad Peak located in the Karakoram Range on the Pakistani-Chinese border.
During his descent he fell into a crevasse amid bad weather.
A task force in the metropolitan government of Gwangju announced Monday that it decided to halt search efforts and that rescue crews will leave a base camp there soon.
The team said the move falls in line with a request made by Kim's family to suspend the search, considering it would be difficult for the 56-year-old climber to survive the conditions on the mountain.
Kim, who lost all his fingers to frostbite in 1991, became the world's first person with a disability to conquer the 14 highest mountains in the Himalayas.
The task force in Gwangju also expressed appreciation to the Pakistani and Chinese governments for supporting the rescue operation.
A funeral service for the Kim will be conducted by the Korea Alpine Federation.
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