Category: Korea-General Topics

Here is the latest on the Scout Jamboree fiasco which now apparently can’t figure out what they are going to do for the closing ceremony:

Scouts hoist the Jamboree and the 25th World Scout Jamboree flags at the opening ceremony of the event in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Aug. 2. Courtesy of World Organization of the Scout Movement

The 25th World Scout Jamboree got off to a disappointing start due to poor preparations and facilities management amid a heat wave that sparked outcries from participants and parents. The global youth event is likely to be the source of more embarrassment as the government is not fully ready for a flag handover ceremony to the next host country.

Although the Korean government took control of the remainder of the quadrennial event, whose participants exited the campsite due to the rapidly-approaching Typhoon Khanun, government ministries and organizers are still undecided on how to deliver the Jamboree flag to the event’s next host, Poland, at the closing ceremony on Friday. 

The Korean government created a team led by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to handle the rest of the Jamboree event to ensure that the Scouts can enjoy Korean culture during the remaining period of the event. However, government ministries and organizers are passing on the responsibility to other agencies, especially involving matters related to the flag handover ceremony. 

When The Korea Times inquired about the flag handover event, an official at the prime minister’s office in charge of the Jamboree said the matter should be referred to the organizing committee.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

What a fiasco the Scout Jamboree has turned out to be. It is not like it couldn’t have been predicted that the weather in August in South Korea is miserable:

German Scouts and adult volunteers participating in the 25th World Scout Jamboree arrive at Myongji University’s dormitory in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, after leaving the main campsite in Saemangeum, a reclaimed tidal flat in North Jeolla Province, as all participants were relocated across the country amid a typhoon threat. Yonhap

About 37,000 Scouts participating in the 25th World Scout Jamboree left their campsite in Saemangeum for Seoul and seven other regions across the country on Tuesday ― four days ahead of schedule due to the rapidly-approaching Typhoon Khanun.

Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min said the government mobilized more than 1,000 buses to relocate about 37,000 people from 156 countries. 

The global youth event initially drew over 43,000 Scouts from 159 nations, but the 1,500-member U.S. and 4,400-member U.K. delegations, along with participants from Singapore, pulled out of the campsite earlier citing risks posed by a heat wave.

“Four police helicopters and 273 patrol cars were also mobilized for the safe movement of the participants,” Lee said during the last media briefing held in Saemangeum, a reclaimed tidal flat in North Jeolla Province that has served as the venue for this year’s World Scout Jamboree.

According to the government, the participants were scattered throughout 128 accommodations across the country, including 64 in Gyeonggi Province, 18 in South Chungcheong Province, 17 in Seoul and eight in Incheon. 

Most of the places are college dormitories or government and corporate training facilities.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but maybe the government should have let the military plan this instead of civilian authorities who seemed more interested in taking lavish trips abroad.

Here is an update on the typhoon that will soon make landfall on South Korea:

A woman looks at high waves at a beach in Gangneung, 163 kilometers east of Seoul, on Aug. 8, 2023, as Typhoon Khanun is forecast to hit the country’s southeastern region two days later. (Yonhap)

Typhoon Khanun is expected to make landfall on South Korea’s southern coast this week and proceed northward to North Korea, putting the entire country under its influence and dumping heavy rains nationwide, the weather agency said Tuesday.

Khanun, which was moving northward from waters 300 kilometers south of Japan’s Kagoshima as of 9 a.m., is expected to reach 30 km west of the southern coastal city of Tongyeong at 9 a.m. Thursday to make landfall in South Korea, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said.

The typhoon may head further north to pass South Korea by early Friday morning and reach 70 km northeast of North Korea’s capital Pyongyang at 9 a.m. Friday, the agency said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the storm is not particularly strong with 126 kilometer per hour winds, but as we have seen earlier this summer, flooding from the rain will likely be the most deadly part of this storm.

If this alleged misappropriation of funds is going on with the Jamboree other large public events should be audited as well. The Jamboree spending is only coming to light due to the poor weather that exposed issues with planning; what misappropriation of funds has happened in events that went off as planned?:

This file photo, taken July 24, 2023, shows a site for the 25th World Scout Jamboree, set to take place at Saemangeum, a reclaimed area in Buan, about 204 kilometers south of Seoul, from Aug. 1-12. The Buan county office provided this photo. 

An overwhelming amount of public funds in South Korea spent for the 2023 World Scout Jamboree was used for operational and personnel expenses instead of for the setting up of infrastructure, such as shower and bathroom stalls, at the camp site, according to data provided by organizers Monday.

It has raised scrutiny on whether both central and local authorities involved in the jamboree management throughout the years adequately used public funds — especially in light of revelations of over some 90 reported cases of lavish overseas business trips taken by civil servants in the name of research.

According to data provided by the central government, the North Jeolla provincial government and the jamboree organizing committee on Monday, the accumulated budget used to run the event and related expenditure had amounted to 117.1 billion won (US$89.5 million). 

Of the total, 74 percent, or 87 billion won, had been used to cover personnel expenses for the organizing committee and operational costs, such as those related to travel and food for the Scouts, and the K-pop concert for the jamboree.

Spending for campsite infrastructure, including water and sewage facilities, parking lots and water-spraying cooling tunnels, stood at 20.5 billion won.

Expenses for toilets, showers and drinking water fountains at the campsite amounted to 13 billion won, or 11 percent of the total spending, data showed.

Here is where the spending gets infuriating:

Data also showed that officials, such as those from the gender equality and family ministry, and the North Jeolla provincial government, went on dozens of lavish overseas trips throughout eight years under the guise of research for the jamboree. 

In May 2018, five officials from the province went on an eight-day trip to Switzerland and Italy under the pretext of investigating successful jamboree hosting cases. 

The trip included visits to tourist attractions, such as Interlaken, Lucerne, Milan and Venice. Switzerland and Italy, however, had no experience hosting jamborees.

In December of that year, another group of officials at the provincial government visited Australia, and in 2019, officials from the gender equality ministry and the provincial government traveled to the United States to attend the 24th World Scout Jamboree held in West Virginia.

Several of the trips included cruise ship programs totally unrelated to the World Scout Jamboree.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This reminds me about the complaints about the heat during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Why schedule a major event like this during the hottest and most humid part of the year? It is no secret that August is one of the worst months to visit Korea:

Members of the United States contingent at the World Scout Jamboree under way in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, wait in line to board a bus headed to the American military base in Pyeongtaek on Aug. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)

The United States contingent at the World Scout Jamboree under way in South Korea on Sunday departed for an American military base in Pyeongtaek, cutting short their stay amid an extreme heat wave.

Following criticism over insufficient preparations against record-high temperatures, the U.S. Scouts, comprising some 1,500 members, announced a plan to move its members from the site in the southwestern coastal area of Saemangeum to Camp Humphreys, an American military garrison 60 kilometers south of Seoul, and stay there until Friday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Korea has just been having horrible weather this summer and this is only going to make it worse:

Typhoon Khanun is forecast to hit South Korea later this week, after being expected to travel farther west than initial projections, the national weather agency said Sunday.

The typhoon passed through the northeast of Japan’s Okinawa and was moving up 240 kilometers off the northeast coast at 3 p.m. Sunday, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. 

It is predicted to head further north toward the southeastern coast of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, with the central pressure at 975 hectopascal and the maximum wind speed of up to 115 kilometers per hour, the KMA said.

The KMA said earlier Sunday that the typhoon would hit most parts of South Korea except for the southwestern coast off South Jeolla Province. At 4 p.m., however, the weather agency said the typhoon will likely move farther to the west as it reaches the peninsula.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is looking like the weather is absolutely miserable for these Scouts. Hopefully the alternate attractions being planned for them has a lot of shade and air conditioning:

British Scouts arrive at a hotel in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, after they withdrew from the campsite in the Saemangeum reclamation area hosting the World Scout Jamboree amid a heat wave, Aug. 5. Yonhap

Municipal and provincial governments across Korea were busy arranging various tourism programs for participants at the World Scout Jamboree under way in the country as alternative activities amid an ongoing extreme heat wave and other issues that have affected the global gathering.

The event held in the southwestern coastal area of Saemangeum has faced criticism after numerous accounts of a hospital bed shortage, waterlogged conditions due to previous heavy rains, and swarms of mosquitoes, as the country has been gripped with record-high temperatures.

On Saturday, representatives of the participating countries decided to go ahead with the event despite challenges that led the United States, Britain and Singapore to pull out from the campsite.

In light of the reported problems at the site, President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered authorities to devise tourism programs that would enable jamboree participants to see firsthand Korea’s industry, culture, history and nature.

Korea Times

You can read more at the links.

Great job by these ROK firefighters who undoubtedly gained some valuable forest fire experience to bring back with them to Korea:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks in front of Korean firefighters on their way back to Korea from Ottawa, Wednesday. Screenshot from X

anadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday tweeted a video clip of himself expressing gratitude to a Korean emergency firefighting team who helped his country deal with raging wildfires.

“This morning in Ottawa, I got to send off an incredible group of people. They came from Korea and spent the last few weeks battling wildfires in Quebec,” Trudeau said in the video message posted on social media. “On behalf of all Canadians ― I thanked them for their heroic work.”

The Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT), comprised of 151 personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korea Forest Service, the National Fire Agency and the medical sector, arrived in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec, on July 2. Two days later, they began a month-long mission fighting the natural disaster that prompted the Quebec provincial government to declare a state of emergency. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It seems every few years a Korean builders gets exposed for shoddy construction. Here is the latest example which could impact the entire Korean construction industry:

Rebar and wires are exposed in the collapsed parking garage of GS E&C’s apartment complex construction site in Incheon in this May 2 file photo. Yonhap

The government’s recent disclosure of poorly built underground parking garages of apartment complexes nationwide has not only sparked fears about the safety of Korea’s housing construction, but also caused concerns over a potential setback in Korea’s ambitious plan to win $50 billion in overseas construction orders every year until 2027, industry experts said Wednesday. 

Given that GS E&C, DL Construction, Hyosung Heavy Industries and other major Korean builders have been criticized for building parking garages having insufficient steel bars in their pillars, the experts warned that foreign clients may avoid placing orders with those companies.

“This issue will eventually affect the overseas business of Korean builders, tarnishing the country’s reputation as a construction powerhouse,” said Choe Myeong-ki, who is in charge of the construction sector in the Industrial Field Professors under supervision of the labor ministry. “Foreign clients will raise questions about the capability of Korean builders involved in poor construction.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It isn’t really surprising that some parents would abuse the changes made to the child abuse law to go after teachers:

It was the second weekly gathering of teachers and aspiring teachers, as the organizers seek to hold rallies regularly until early September, which will be 49 days after the death of the 23-year-old teacher who took her own life in an elementary school classroom in Seocho-gu, earlier in July. The rally last week saw some 5,000 participants.

Saturday’s rally indicated that parents’ abuse of the right to report a child abuse case against teachers has been obstructing teachers’ responsibility to manage their behavior and discipline them appropriately, as often teachers believe no actual child abuse was committed.

Once a teacher is accused of abusing a student in his or her classroom, the teacher is suspended and the rest of the child’s classmates and their parents face the change of the teacher into a substitute teacher, and the accused teacher cannot return until they are cleared of the abuse allegation.

“Consequently, the classroom (ecosystem) is imploding,” an unnamed teacher said before the protesters.

“We are seeing the children’s right to be protected being respected at all times, while teachers’ responsibility to teach children how to behave appropriately is being dwarfed by the law to prevent child abuse. This needs to improve.”

Also joining the rally was another unnamed teacher with over 20 years of work experience, who was acquitted of her child abuse allegation earlier in July after a year of litigation.

The teacher was accused of child abuse by the parent of a student who beat up their classmates. She had flipped a table to get students’ attention when a student was exerting violence, and tore into pieces what was supposed to be a letter of apology by the student as it contained no show of apology and the student told the teacher she should let go of it.

Wearing sunglasses, the teacher claimed that a teacher who tries to break up a fight between classmates faces allegations of physical abuse, and a teacher who yells at children who picked a fight will face allegations of emotional abuse.

“Is it normal to take our courage in both hands to teach what we are supposed to teach?” she said.

“I feel like I’m walking on thin ice every day. … The law to prevent child abuse should not be abused to allow parents to handcuff or threaten teachers.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but flipping a table may not be child abuse, but it does seem a bit unhinged on this teacher’s part.