EXCLUSIVE: Independent panel slams Korean gov't, scout association over Jamboree debacle

A scathing report released by the international scouting movement concluded the Korean government and national scout association “failed” to deliver on key promises regarding the disastrous 25th World Scout Jamboree held in North Jeolla last year.

Scouts prepare to leave the World Scout Jamboree in Buan County, North Jeolla on Aug. 8, 2023. Tens of thousands of scouts were evacuated from the Jamboree campsite a week after the event's opening amid rising concerns over heat, sanitation, food safety, waterborne diseases and an approaching typhoon. [AFP/YONHAP]

A scathing report released by the international scouting movement concluded the Korean government and national scout association “failed” to deliver on key promises regarding the disastrous 25th World Scout Jamboree held in North Jeolla last year.

The report, which was compiled by a six-member independent review panel appointed by the World Scout Committee, also said the Korea Scout Association at times “deliberately misled the World Scout Committee, World Scout Bureau, and National Scout Organizations in its communications on the state of the event’s preparations.”

Approximately 43,000 participants — mainly scouts aged 14 to 18 from 158 countries — descended on Saemangeum, a reclaimed tidal flatland in Buan County, North Jeolla, for the World Scout Jamboree on August 1 last year, only to be evacuated a week later amid snowballing concerns over sanitation, food safety, inadequate shelter, insect- and water-borne diseases and a typhoon.

Photos and comments from participants at the time highlighted a plethora of problems at the Jamboree site, including clogged toilets, rotten or expired food, waterlogged camping grounds and a lack of natural shade as the local mercury soared to as high as 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

In its report, the World Scout Committee panel found that the Korea Scout Association focused on “peripheral” Jamboree elements such as fare discounts and visa waivers “instead of ensuring a safe camping experience” and eventually “failed to deliver on its responsibility and promises to organize the planning and delivery of a safe and successful event.”

According to the report, documents submitted to the panel suggest “a strong possibility that official planning for the event did not commence until 2020” and that there was “a clear gap between promises made and expectations set by the Host in the bidding phase, as well as updates received during the planning phase, and the reality of the event that was delivered in 2023.”

In particular, the panel noted that Saemangeum was a “demonstrably high-risk site” even during the Jamboree bidding process but that the Korea Scout Association did not uphold its commitments to build an International Scout Center or plant trees on a large scale over the sunbaked flatland.

The panel further highlighted the absence of signage in bathrooms, buses and camps as examples of the lack of an on-site communication strategy as required by Jamboree guidelines.

The panel concluded that the leadership structure for the Jamboree established by the Korea Scout Association, which included five co-chairs, “blurred lines on authority” and made it both “extremely difficult to pin responsibility on anyone” and “easy to leave tasks unaccomplished.”

But the panel’s report also said the Korea Scout Association was “sidelined” by the Korean government “on account of the large funding provided by the latter” and that the government became the de facto organizer of the Jamboree “against past practice and guidelines.”

This, coupled with the annual turnover of government officials working on the event, meant that “the normal relationship-building processes that go toward strengthened support for event planning were not in place,” according to the report.

The panel also said Korean government officials involved in organizing the 25th World Scout Jamboree “were unable to provide much-needed information, especially on the financial statements relating to the event, which would have made the [review] process far more transparent for everyone.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]