Records suggest dubious overseas trips prior to Jamboree

Officials from local governments and related agencies traveled abroad 99 times, including for cruise trips, over the past eight years purportedly to prepare for the ongoing 25th World Scout Jamboree.

British scouts prepare to leave the camping grounds of the World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum in Buan Country, North Jeolla, on Saturday. [YONHAP]

Records show that officials from related local governments and agencies traveled abroad 99 times over the past eight years purportedly to prepare for the ongoing 25th World Scout Jamboree.

The JoongAng Ilbo on Sunday reviewed a database to track overseas business trips taken by public officials since August 2017, when Saemangeum in Buan County, North Jeolla, was first selected as a candidate site for the Jamboree by the Korea Scout Association in September 2015.

The so-called overseas business trip training information system, a database registering records of public officials' travels abroad, show reports filed by officials from five entities that took trips to prepare for the Jamboree.

Officials from the North Jeolla provincial government took the most overseas trips with 55, followed by the Buan County Office with 25, the Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency with 12, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family with five and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs with two.

Saemangeum won the bid to host the Jamboree, the world's largest youth camp held every four years, at the 41st World Scout Conference in Azerbaijan on Aug. 16, 2017.

Broadly speaking, the trips found in the records can be divided into two categories. The first includes 54 trips related to securing the bid, mostly in the two years leading up to Saemangeum's final selection in 2017. The other trips were generally listed for the purpose of "exploration of advanced cultures" in preparation for hosting the event.

While seemingly legitimate at first glance, upon closer inspection, some of the details in the reports filed by officials appear questionable, including cruises and tours of overseas hotspots unrelated to the scouts.

In late May 2018, a group of five North Jeolla provincial officials took an eight-day business trip to Switzerland and Italy for the purpose of "interviewing key people and conducting case studies for the successful hosting of World Scout Jamboree events."

However, the only itinerary items related to the Jamboree were a meeting with the former chairman of the European Scout Region on the first day and a visit to the World Scout Centre, also known as the Kandersteg International Scout Centre, in the Swiss Alps on the second day.

From the third day, the group visited famous tourist destinations in Switzerland, such as the resort town of Interlaken and the city of Lucerne. They then visited Italy's Milan and Venice over the next several days.

Switzerland and Italy had never even hosted a World Scout Jamboree before, but the officials tried to find a link, writing up a vision for Saemangeum to be developed "as a differentiated city like Venice in Italy to pass onto future generations."

Notably, some of the descriptions of tourist destinations they visited, such as the Piazza San Marco in Venice, appeared to be copied directly from a travel article printed in a local media outlet in March 2014 without changing a single word.

A report submitted by five public officials belonging to a World Scout Jamboree promotion team in the North Jeolla provincial government after an eight-day business trip to Switzerland and Italy from May 29 to June 5 in 2018, filed in an overseas business trip database. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

In October 2019, four officials from the Buan County Office went on a 10-day business trip to London and Paris. Records show they filed the purpose of the trip as an "on-site study of the Jamboree in Britain and a study on excellent festivals in Paris." However, London held the World Scout Jamboree in 1920, some 103 years ago, and the event was never hosted in Paris.

The itinerary for the business trip was also comprised of tours, including visits to Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey in England and stops at the Grape Harvest Festival in Montmartre and the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel in France.

The business trip report included descriptions that officials attended the wine-tasting event in Montmartre considering how to incorporate aspects of it into a "drinking festival" representative of Buan County.

Local officials also went on cruise trips, claiming it was to prepare for the Jamboree.

Buan County is pushing for the creation of a cruise port, separate from the hosting of the Jamboree. When the Jamboree bid was confirmed, county officials made two business trips under the pretext of "promoting the Jamboree venue through the creation of a cruise port of call."

This included a seven-day cruise trip from Shanghai, China in October 2019 for 13 officials, and another cruise tour from Taiwan in December 2019, for five officials to visit Taipei 101 Observation Deck and Keelung port.

Some officials didn't report their business trips, claiming it was confidential.

A group of five officials from the North Jeolla provincial government and the Korea Scout Association made a 12-day trip from Dec. 12, 2016 to Belgium, Italy, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to promote Saemangeum's Jamboree bid.

However, further details were not included as it was "not listed in the report due to confidentiality and security issues."

Another 11-day business trip to the 24th World Scout Jamboree hosted by the United States in July 2019 included eight people, including five Buan County Council members and three staffers. The purpose of the business trip was reportedly to "visit the U.S. Jamboree and learn how it operates."

They stayed in Charleston, West Virginia, where the Jamboree was actually held, for only two days. The rest of the trip was spent visiting the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Chelsea Market and Times Square in New York and Washington. The business trip cost 32.94 million won ($25,230).

"It seems that there was not much practical preparation during the eight years since Korea was selected as a candidate site," Kim Seong-soo, a professor of political science and diplomacy at Hanyang University, said.

"We need to properly look at how the 100-billion-won budget invested in the Saemangeum Jamboree has been spent so far," said a government official.

BY KIM JUN-YOUNG, SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]