Jamboree marred by problems changes into a “tour of South Korea”

U.K. Scouts in Myeong-dong, Seoul: Scouts from the United Kingdom who withdrew from the 2023 Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree early tour Myeong-dong, Seoul on August 6. Yonhap News

The 2023 Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree, promoted as the first large-scale international youth event since the COVID-19 pandemic, has been rigged with problems and is turning into a “tour of South Korea.” Due to sloppy preparations and a lack of safety awareness, it is now hard to find the original purpose of the jamboree, which was to engrave the challenging and pioneering Scout spirit, a spirit of harmony.

Due to poor measures in response to the heatwave, which was predicted, participants continued to leave the camp. Some countries with a large number of participants, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, have decided to withdraw from the camp early. Among South Korean participants, over eighty Scouts from the Jeollabuk-do region were the first to pack their bags and leave the camp site because of the “poor environment.”

The situation on the camping grounds have improved in general due to the belated government intervention. But a large number of outdoor activities was canceled and replaced with tours of South Korea, making it difficult for the Saemangeum Jamboree to achieve its initial goal of providing “an opportunity to enhance the nation’s prestige among the world’s youths.”

On August 6, a line of Scouts packed their bags and left the camping site in the reclaimed land in Saemangeum, located in Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-go. Around 10:50 a.m. Sunday, seventeen buses carrying Scouts from the U.S. left the camping ground and departed for Camp Humphreys, the U.S. base in Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi.

Over a thousand Scouts from the U.K., which sent over 4,500 youths and leaders, the biggest delegation among the countries taking part in the Saemangeum Jamboree, also left for Seoul Sunday, following the other Scouts who left the previous day.

Some local Scouts from South Korea also left the camp site earlier than scheduled. Eighty-five members of the 900th local unit of the Jeollabuk-do Scout Association announced that they would prepare to withdraw on Sunday morning and leave the campsite that afternoon. They were the first of South Korean Scouts to announce a collective withdrawal from the campsite after the opening of the Saemangeum Jamboree.

The Saemangeum Jamboree had prepared 143 programs in the campsite, in which over 55,280 youths could take part in a day. But organizers have not been able to conduct most of the outside programs according to plan.

The government and the organizing committee could not evade criticism for poor preparations, for they had plenty of time to prepare for the event. Their attitude went against the international Scout motto, “Be prepared.”

The Saemangeum Jamboree, which has passed the halfway point six days after the it began on August 1, is expected to be filled with tours of South Korea until the end of the event. On August 5, the government requested the seventeen local metropolitan and provincial governments nationwide to create domestic tour programs for the Jamboree participants.

As of Sunday, ninety tours were prepared. According to the government’s explanation, since some of the programs would be conducted far from the campsite, if the participants cannot return to the campsite that day, they could spend one to two nights outside the camp. The government announced that they would be able to provide the domestic tours as early as August 7, as soon as they finished discussions with the World Organization of the Scout Movement.

In the end, the Saemangeum Jamboree may not be able to fulfill the purpose of the World Jamboree, which aims to provide opportunities for world youths to learn different cultures and build friendships through outdoor camping. One Korean Scout leader participating in the jamboree said, “Scouts from overseas might enjoy the increase of off-site programs, such as tours of South Korea, but it has become difficult to embody the spirit of the World Jamboree,” and added, “The government probably provided these programs as a last resort due to the situation, but it is unfortunate.”