Critics have argued the decision to host the Jamboree at a site known as Saemangeum was part of an effort to justify further investment in a controversial swath of reclaimed land.
Early Tuesday morning, the storm was centered 350 kilometers south of Kagoshima, a city on the southwestern tip of Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu. Khanun produced winds of 108 kph with gusts to 144 kph and was slowly moving north, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported. The Jamboree began last Wednesday at the campsite in Saemangeum, a huge area reclaimed from sea by a 19-year project that was completed in 2010. It has remained largely barren site as local officials continue to pursue plans for highways, ports and an international airport. Once seen as major development project that would revamp a region that lacks modern industries, Saemanguem is now increasingly viewed as an ecological disaster that wiped out coastal wetlands and hurt fisheries production.
Before Tuesday’s pullout, government officials channeled national resources to keep the event going, adding medical staff, air-conditioned buses, military shade structures, and hundreds of workers to maintain bathrooms and showers, which some Scouts complained were filthy or unkempt.More than 270 police cars and four helicopters were deployed to escort the buses that began departing the site on 9 a.m., said Lee Sang-min, South Korea’s Minister of the Interior and Safety.
The announcement about the evacuations came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it called on South Korea to quickly move the Scouts from the storm’s path and provide necessary resources for participants until they return to their home countries.
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