By Hyunsu Yim and Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea is determined to push ahead with the World Scout Jamboree, officials said on Monday, even as organisers plan to evacuate thousands of teenage participants out of the path of a typhoon that is expected to drench their campsite.
The storm is the latest headache for the organisers of the jamboree, which began on Tuesday amid one of the worst heatwaves to hit South Korea in years.
The heat caused hundreds of scouts to fall ill, and triggered complaints from parents as well as the withdrawal of the British and U.S. contingents.
The governor of North Jeolla province, which is hosting the event, has apologised, and officials have sent in scores of water trucks and air conditioners to keep participants cool.
Typhoon Khanun, which has wreaked havoc in southern Japan, is forecast to reach southern South Korea on Thursday, near the jamboree’s campsite.
Kim Sung-ho, a senior interior ministry official, told reporters that about 36,000 participants would be taken by bus on Tuesday to areas that are away from the path of the typhoon.
“I can say that it is the location that is only changing because of the natural disaster, but it is still continuing,” Kim Hyun-sook, whose ministry is organising the event, told the same media briefing.
Officials are seeking alternate venues and accommodation in and around Seoul, as well as in university dorms.
More than 40,000 people were at the jamboree, the first global scout gathering since the pandemic.
Earlier, the British and U.S. contingents left the campsite, citing adverse weather. Singaporean scouts have also moved into accommodation elsewhere.
The Americans are due to stay at a U.S.
army base and the British at hotels in the capital, Seoul. Scouts from 155 nations were attending the event.
A K-pop concert due to be held at the campsite on Sunday was postponed to Friday, but the venue had yet to be decided because of the typhoon, minister Kim said.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Ed Davies, Robert Birsel and Miral Fahmy)
