The ruling and opposition parties are waging a proxy war over the responsibility of the former and current governments over the poor management of the 2023 Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree. Although it has been in a lull for the time being due to the withdrawal of the campsite due to the northward typhoon ‘Kanun’, the 6th typhoon ‘Kanun’, it is highly likely that the battle between the ruling and opposition parties will re-ignite if the responsibility is determined in earnest after the end of the tournament. However, looking at the promotion process from site selection to hosting the Jamboree and holding the event afterwards, it seems that both the former and current governments will not be able to avoid censure for this jamboree disruption.
① The ruling and opposition parties select a site for the development of Saemangeum and marginalized areas
The first question in relation to this Jamboree is ‘site selection’. The venue for an outdoor event held in midsummer, August, is ‘How did Saemangeum, which has no shade, be selected?’ It can be seen that both the ruling and opposition parties are responsible for this.
It was in 2015, during the Park Geun-hye administration, that discussions on hosting the 23rd World Scout Jamboree began in earnest. In July of that year, Song Ha-jin, governor of North Jeolla Province, a member of the opposition Democratic Party, announced his intention to promote the Saemangeum Jamboree, and in September, the Korea Scout Federation confirmed it as a domestic candidate. The plan to host the Saemangeum Jamboree International Event in Jeonbuk-do received full support from the Ministry of Leisure and Leisure, and on July 25 of the following year, it passed the International Event Review Committee of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and bidding activities began in earnest. At that time, the women, the opposition, the people, and the government were of one heart and mind.
As stated in the 2018 Jamboree attraction result report, Jeonbuk Province expected that the Jamboree attraction would serve as an opportunity to spur the sluggish development of Saemangeum. It is highly likely that the government at the time thought of this as a ‘killing two birds with one stone’ project that could improve national prestige through hosting international events and develop Honam, a neglected area.
② The Moon government is responsible for the insolvency of infrastructure construction after the attraction
On August 17, 2017, during the Moon Jae-in administration, the World Scout Federation finally decided on Saemangeum as the venue for the 25th World Scout Jamboree. Preparing for the business was not smooth from the first stage. This is because the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Jeonbuk Province, and the Korea Scout Federation expressed disagreement over the enactment of the ‘Special Act on the Jamboree’, which stipulates the function of the Organizing Committee to oversee government support for the Jamboree and project promotion. The special law was only promulgated in December of that year beyond the threshold of the National Assembly in November 2018, as they clashed over the name of the competition to be included in the bill and the criteria for selecting the organizing committee chairperson.
The organizing committee was formed in July 2020, three years after the bid, and Lee Jeong-ok, then Minister of Leisure and Recreation and Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Yun-deok, was appointed as the co-chair of the organizing committee, and Jeonbuk-do Governor Song was appointed as the executive chairman. For about two years until May 2022, when the regime토토사이트 was changed, they supervised the establishment of the business foundation and infrastructure, such as △establishing the World Jamboree Comprehensive Plan △installation and management of related facilities, as prescribed by the Special Act.
However, they also failed to do their job. A typical example of this is the cancellation of the Pre-Jamboree (pre-event). The PreJamboree was initially planned for 2021, but was eventually canceled after being postponed to August 2022 after the inauguration of the Yoon Seok-yeol government. The superficial reason was ‘Corona 19’, but until August of last year, the Saemangeum camp often became a sea of water due to lack of infrastructure and poor drainage, so the PreJamboree could not be held normally.
③The Yoon government is responsible for neglecting heat wave and sanitation measures
Since the PreJamboree was canceled last year after the launch of the Yoon Seok-yeol government, it is not free from the theory of responsibility in that there was time to make up for the lack of preparation for a year. This is because members of the opposition Democratic Party pointed out measures to prepare for heat waves and drainage at the Saemangeum Jamboree camp in the National Assembly, but it was not properly reflected.
In short, Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hyun-sook, who assumed the position of co-chairman of the organizing committee at the same time as the Yoon Seok-yeol government launched in May of last year, did not come up with any special measures even though the situation was so serious that the Pre-Jamboree was canceled in August of that year. In the parliamentary audit in October of that year, an opposition lawmaker pointed out the preparation situation, but only repeated the boast that “we have prepared all the measures.”
In February of this year, Minister of Public Administration and Security Lee Sang-min and Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Bo-gyun were also appointed as co-chairs of the organizing committee, and three ministers of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration were appointed as the final directors, but no one was properly aware of the problem until lameness broke out. When the heat wave and sanitation problems, which had been concerned throughout the preparation process, broke out, the government and the ruling party only rushed to invest budget and manpower.
On the 7th, Kim Ki-hyun, representative of People’s Power, said, “As the budget of 10.8 billion won was urgently invested, the poor field environment is rapidly improving.” It was a statement emphasizing the government’s quick recovery, but paradoxically, it also means that if the current government had taken an interest in it and took measures a little earlier, the political world could not have waged a political battle over the theory of responsibility for the previous and current governments.
Prospects for a full-fledged battle for responsibility in the August provisional National Assembly
However, the ruling and opposition parties are poised to engage in full-scale responsibility battles. This is because the Public Administration and Safety Committee on the 16th and the Gender Equality and Family Committee on the 22nd are ahead of pending inquiries. Since the presidential office is in a mood to take responsibility after the tournament, there is a high possibility that it will spread to audits by the Board of Audit and Inspection and government investigations. On the 8th, Sang-beom Yoo, chief spokesman for People’s Power, said, “The reason why such lax and operational problems have been revealed despite the budget of more than 100 billion won must be accurately analyzed.