Current and former presidents slug it out over Jamboree

Moon Jae-in wrote on Facebook on Sunday that Korea suffered much embarrassment because of the recently concluded Jamboree. “We have lost our national dignity and pride,” Moon said. “It’s the people who have to endure the embarrassment.”

Former President Moon Jae-in attends a ceremony in South Jeolla on Aug. 8. [YONHAP]

Tensions are rising between President Yoon Suk Yeol and his predecessor Moon Jae-in over the fiasco that was the World Scout Jamboree.

On Monday, an official at the presidential office cited a column published in the Munhwa Ilbo that called out former president Moon as “audacious” and “brazen” over his criticism of the current administration’s handling of the World Scout Jamboree.

“We are aware of such evaluations,” the official said in a press briefing.

He said while the Jamboree didn’t go as planned earlier on, the government must examine why things went wrong and to come up with follow-up measures to prevent the same issues from happening at future events.

“The process should yield productive measures rather than exhausting political disputes,” he said.

Moon wrote on Facebook on Sunday that Korea suffered much embarrassment because of the recently concluded Jamboree.

“We have lost our national dignity and pride,” Moon said. “It’s the people who have to endure the embarrassment.”

He claimed that even the heavens didn’t help the Jamboree since the people were ill-prepared.

“As the president who succeeded in winning the bid for the World Scout Jamboree, I send my apologies and condolences,” Moon said.

The Munhwa Ilbo column on Monday not only accused the former president of being audacious and brazen but added that if he were a “normal person,” he would have thanked the people who tried their best to end the event with grace.

The People Power Party (PPP) accused the former president of having done nothing during his five years in office to prepare Saemangeum for the global event.

“What have you done and what do you plan to do as the president who succeeded in bidding,” PPP Rep. Park Dae-chul wrote on Facebook. “All you did was bid and then never got involved in the preparation."

He added, “Don't you feel guilt for wasting five years and then trying to put the blame on someone else?”

Democratic Party floor leader Park Kwang-on supported Moon during a party leadership meeting Monday.

“Because of the Jamboree crisis, our national dignity has plummeted, and not only the people of North Jeolla but the people of our nation all suffered disappointment,” Park said. “And yet [the Yoon government and the PPP] are busy blaming others.”

“It is more embarrassing to watch them blaming others in front of the youth from around the world than the Jamboree crisis itself,” Park said. “That is why former President Moon, as the president who won the bid, apologized and expressed his condolences to the people who were disappointed, as well as to the scouts from all over the world, North Jeolla residents and sponsoring companies.”

“The government should at least acknowledge that they were unprepared,” he said.

The Jamboree was mired in controversy from the very beginning, with critics complaining the campsite was underprepared as the North Jeolla government, the central government and the organizing committee scrambled to mitigate problems.

Young scouts were soon falling ill due to shortages of shade, clean water, showers and toilets at the sunbaked but waterlogged Saemangeum, a reclaimed mudflat.

Even the food the scouts received was dodgy, including rotten eggs, while GS25 convenience store was accused of price gouging for ice.

The central government stepped in to engage in damage control on Aug. 4, two days after the official opening ceremony attended by President Yoon himself.

However, even this was not enough to prevent the British, American and Singaporean scout contingents from withdrawing from the campsite to seek refuge in safer locations.

The North Jeolla government, former Moon administration and current Yoon administration now face mounting criticism of their failure to prepare for the global event despite having had six years to do so.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]