South Korea Throws Huge K-Pop Concert For Scouts After Storm Khanun Disrupted Their Jamboree

SEOUL, South Korea — 40,000 Scouts whose international Jamboree was canceled due to the weather. A day after a strong tropical storm transformed streets into muddy rivers and flooded thousands of homes, South Korea hosted a sizable K-Pop performance in Seoul for 40,000 Scouts whose international Jamboree was canceled due to the weather.

The event on Friday at a soggy football pitch featured various artists, including the girl groups NewJeans and Ive. Government representatives put together the show rapidly to serve as the World Scout Jamboree’s closing ceremony. It occurred as the nation started to clean up and make repairs following the storm Khanun, which hammered the country’s southern and eastern regions with severe rains and gusts that caused hundreds to leave, leaving at least one person dead after landfall early Thursday.

By the time Khanun made landfall in the heavily populated Seoul metropolitan region Thursday night, it had already begun to lose strength, and it blew into North Korea early Friday as a tropical depression.

Before Khanun ordered a massive relocation effort to lodge the Scouts in university residence halls, government and business training centers, and hotels in the greater Seoul region and neighboring areas, the Jamboree was hosted at a beachfront encampment.

Thousands of British and American Scouts had already left the campground due to a blistering heat wave and sanitary issues before the storm ended the Jamboree. Organizers fought to keep the event going.

40,000 Scouts whose international Jamboree was canceled due to the weather.

Those withdrawals were a major PR blow for a nation that consistently aspires to the respect that huge international events provide. After frantic government efforts to give the Jamboree a proper finish, Friday’s concert was held.

In a speech before the Seoul World Cup Stadium concert, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo expressed regret for the challenges Scouts faced in the face of an extraordinary heat wave and typhoon brought on by climate change. Han read his message, but the large groups of international scouts crammed the seats in multicolored uniforms, and raincoats paid him little attention as they yelled in joy and sent waves rising across the stadium.

The Scouts shouted excitedly as the singers began to perform on a brightly lit stage in a drizzle while waving heart-shaped light sticks and taking videos with their phones.

According to government officials, most trains and commercial flights have resumed, and the approximately 46,000 homes that lost power while Khanun passed through the nation have largely had their electricity restored.

While rain fell throughout the evening in Seoul, no reports of significant storm damage occurred. Workers in the nearby port city of Incheon responded to crumbled walls and flooded dwellings.

40,000 Scouts whose international Jamboree was canceled due to the weather.

A 67-year-old man was discovered beside a swollen stream in the southern interior city of Daegu and later declared dead. Another guy who was carried into a creek and was using a wheelchair was being sought after by workers.

Emergency personnel in the seashore cities of Gangneung and Sokcho in Gangwon Province, a mountainous area on the east coast that experienced some of Khanun’s worst rain, wade across rivers of brown, thigh-high water covering what had once been roadways.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, about 16,000 people—mostly in the south—were compelled to flee the storm, but as of Friday, only about 11,400 had done so.

At least 64 roads were damaged or destroyed by the storm, and about 50 residences and businesses also suffered damage. As the rain continued, authorities limited access to roughly 700 highways.

Although its state TV cited several uprooted trees, North Korea could not immediately disclose any notable storm-related damage. State media has previously discussed national initiatives to improve the oversight of roads, railways, bridges, and coastlines and implement safeguards for industry equipment and crops.

SOURCE – (AP)