hankyoreh

Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min gives a briefing on emergency typhoon evacuation plans at the temporary jamboree press center in Seoul on Aug. 9, as Typhoon Khanun makes landfall in South Korea. (Yonhap)

Various state and public institutions are being mobilized to sort out the botched 2023 World Scout Jamboree in Korea, which is on its last legs due to a lack of preparations. Roughly 1,000 employees of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and the Korea Development Bank (KDB) have been assigned to serve as ushers for a K-pop concert for jamboree participants, while police and firefighters who should be standing by for emergencies have been deployed to manage the lodgings of the scouts. Concerns are being raised that overstretching public manpower will cause gaps in public security and disaster preparation.

On Wednesday, the Hankyoreh confirmed that the National Police Agency, which on Tuesday deployed 1,850 police officers along with 251 patrol cars, 22 police motorcycles and four helicopters to manage the relocation of scouts participating in the jamboree, continued to supply a considerable number of its police force to manage and patrol the lodgings of the scouts, mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, even dispatching police squads affiliated with municipal governments as well as detectives from front-line stations to the scene.

This has been met with disgruntlement by some police, who argue that the police shouldn’t be tasked to pick up the pieces of the jamboree when demand for public security is soaring due to a recent series of mass stabbings. A detective dispatched to guard a university dormitory the jamboree scouts are staying in remarked, “I’ve been working day and night due to continuing violent crime. Because the scouts take part in various activities, their quarters are deserted during the day. I’m not sure if it’s right for a detective to guard their lodgings nonetheless.”

Complaints about being tasked with “miscellaneous chores” have also cropped up on Blind, an online community for workers to post about their workplace anonymously. Posts asking why the police had to keep track of the number of jamboree scouts inside dormitories every hour were uploaded, as well as those by posters saying they were asked to “stand guard in front of dormitories for 24 hours” and “check whether facilities had running water.”

Firefighters, who are preparing for the approach of Typhoon Khanun, were put in an awkward position as well. Starting at 6 pm on Tuesday, the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters stationed two firefighting officers each at the 13 dormitories housing scouts located within Seoul to guide evacuations and extinguish fires in the event of an emergency. Notably, on Friday, 250 firefighting personnel will be stationed at the location where the closing ceremony for the jamboree will be held, along with three rescue units, six emergency units and one fire extinguishing unit. Firefighters have also been stationed in 21 dormitories accommodating more than 500 scouts across the country.

Concerns are being voiced about what might happen “in the event of an emergency.” A firefighting official commented, “Dispatched workers are naturally having a rough time, as they are performing extra duties they didn’t have to fulfill.” A post uploaded in an online community read, “I’m a firefighter, but I was assigned to guard the jamboree dormitory. Even though my team is understaffed, I was forcibly dispatched because I’m part of a rescue unit.”

The National Fire Agency explained it is limiting the dispatch of its personnel to the jamboree site to a minimum, as contingencies are expected to occur due to the approaching typhoon, revealing that it intends to mainly mobilize its administrative staff.

“We believe manpower from the Seoul headquarters will be sufficient for the K-pop concert without the need for mobilization from headquarters in other municipal governments,” an agency official commented. “We intend to respond to the jamboree with the minimum required number of staff and focus the rest of our workforce on activities at the scene of the typhoon.”

Staff from public institutions are also being fully mobilized, with the organizing committee for the jamboree reportedly requesting manpower support from the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Tuesday based on the Special Act on Support for the 2023 Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree. The law allows the organizing committee to request administrative and financial assistance from state, municipal and public institutions, stipulating that these institutions cooperate as much as possible barring special circumstances.

The “general mobilization order” was issued due to the K-pop concert, a highlight of Korea’s jamboree, to be held in Seoul on Friday, as scouts scattered all across the country will have to make their way to the concert venue before returning to their lodgings. The government explained that cooperation from public institutions was requested in order to recruit English-speakers who can chaperon scouts within a short period of time.

“As the organizing committee couldn’t make individual requests to public institutions directly, they asked us for help,” an official at the Economy and Finance Ministry’s Public Institutions Policy Bureau stated. “About 40 institutions — mostly large institutions within their region — and roughly 1,000 staff are making preparations. We plan to provide travel expenses and per diems.”

Public institutions such as the KDB, the Industrial Bank of Korea, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and KEPCO are marshaling their employees according to these requests. An employee who works at a state-owned company commented, “Urgently transferring staff at a time when a typhoon advisory is being issued seems excessive,” adding, “They say they are taking volunteers, but since public institutions are greatly influenced by the government, volunteers are not really volunteering.”

During a press briefing, when asked what his position on what’s being called a “mobilization order” for public servants regarding the K-pop concert, Lee Sang-min, the minister of the interior and safety who is serving as the administrator of the government support group, said, “I don’t know that public servants were mobilized,” explaining, “I believe we are at the stage of gathering 1,000 volunteers, and no civil servant was mobilized as far as I know.”

The Mapo District Office requested volunteers from six functional organizations such as the Green Mothers Society of Korea.

By Kim Ga-yoon, staff reporter; Jang Na-rye, staff reporter; Son Ji-min, staff reporter; Nam Ji-hyeon, staff reporter; Key Min-do, staff reporter

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