The K-pop megastars are currently on a hiatus with two members -- Jin and J-Hope -- performing their mandatory military service, and another member, SUGA, set to enlist shortly.
South Korea's military should give them a leave pass so they can briefly reunite and perform for the thousands of mostly teenagers from around the world left stranded by the jamboree fiasco, according to lawmaker Sung Il-jong.
"For these precious guests, it is necessary to fill the lack of schedule... with the power of Korean culture," Sung wrote on his Facebook page.
He asked Seoul's defence ministry to "take all necessary measures" to allow BTS to perform at a K-pop concert in Seoul on Friday for the scouts.
Doing so "would help elevate South Korea's national prestige."
Sung, also a member of the parliament's national defence committee, said the jamboree had "tarnished our country's reputation due to inadequate preparation and poor management".
The defence ministry told AFP that it had "nothing to comment" on Sung's request.
About 43,000 people had gathered on South Korea's coast last week for the World Scouts Jamboree.
But it was plagued by problems, initially with a heatwave that led to mass sunstroke casualties. Poor sanitation was another problem.
An approaching typhoon led organisers to scrap the campsite proceedings completely this week.
Thousands of students were being evacuated to Seoul and other parts of the country on Tuesday.
Even before the typhoon warning, Korean media had called the jamboree "a national disgrace".
But Sung's request prompted angry responses from some BTS fans online.
"Please don't use BTS to cover yourselves up!" one wrote on Twitter, which is now being rebranded to X.
"Isn't it absurd that (the South Korean authorities) are putting the responsibility on BTS to clean up the mess they produced -- by not adequately preparing for the Jamboree?" wrote another.
BTS has played a significant role in promoting South Korea's culture, once even serving as the country's presidential envoys.
Last year, they threw a free concert in Busan in support of South Korea's bid to host the World Expo 2023 in the southern port city.
It was their last concert as a group before the members started joining the army for mandatory military service.
Scouts begin S. Korea jamboree evacuation over extreme weather challenges
Buan, South Korea (AFP) Aug 8, 2023 -
Tens of thousands of scouts were being evacuated Tuesday from their problem-plagued South Korean campsite to safer areas ahead of a looming typhoon, as Seoul scrambled to accommodate and entertain them.
The mass exodus is the latest blow to the jamboree, which has already seen hundreds of scouts fall ill during a sweltering heatwave, prompting the early withdrawal of American and British contingents as complaints over site conditions mounted.
More than 100 police cars and four helicopters were deployed to escort buses carrying the scouts out of the camp site, with President Yoon Suk Yeol cutting short his annual holiday to help manage the fallout from the jamboree, which has been a PR disaster for his administration.
"This is the first time in more than 100 years of World Scout Jamborees that we have had to face such compounded challenges," Ahmad Alhendawi, secretary-general of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said in a statement.
He said the massive event, which brought together about 43,000 scouts to a campsite in South Korea's North Jeolla province, had been "very unlucky with the unprecedented heatwave and now the typhoon".
At the sprawling campsite in Buan on Tuesday, tens of thousands of scouts were packing up their tents and belongings and queuing to get onto buses, with Korea Special Forces on hand to help with the evacuation, AFP reporters saw.
The government sent more than 1,000 buses to ferry the mostly teenage scouts away from the site to areas mostly around Seoul, saying they would be accommodated in university dormitories and other public facilities.
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said the government would ensure participants could be "safe and comfortable" at their new lodgings, vowing that the jamboree programme would continue.
He said he hoped the scouts could "finish their schedules with a happy heart", with the government later announcing a K-pop concert in Seoul, as one lawmaker even called for a special reunion of megastars BTS to salvage the jamboree.
At the site, German volunteer Axel Scholl, 62, told AFP he was "at his limits" working to safely evacuate all the scouts in the heat.
"The worst thing about all of this is... It was for the kids. I'm 62 years old but this was all for the kids. Now they all go home disappointed. It should have been such a nice experience," he told AFP, wiping away tears.
He said Poland -- which will host the next jamboree in 2027 -- will have learned a lot about what can go wrong from this year's experience.
"I feel very, very sorry for the Korean nation and Korean people because I think they would have loved to present their country, their culture, their community in a more positive way," he added.
- 'A really great time' -
Korean media have called the jamboree "a national disgrace," saying that authorities had six years to prepare but even so the site had poor drainage, rudimentary showers and toilets, and participants were afflicted by gruesome bug bites.
Following a deluge of online complaints from parents, government organisers admitted there had been "shortcomings" in the area of hygiene and the scout chief acknowledged in a post on LinkedIn that the event had a "bumpy start with... services and facilities".
But scouts at the campsite told AFP they were sad to leave.
"It was really hot, but we had a great time. It took some while to get used to the circumstances but the youth, they had a really great time," Nicola Raunig, 27, Austria scout unit leader, told AFP.
"I'm sad it will end now," she said, adding that she had hoped participants could have enjoyed "the whole experience".
"But we will make the best out of it," Raunig said.
Typhoon Khanun, which has killed at least two people in Japan, is due to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday, forecast to bring heavy rain and strong winds of up to 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour -- powerful enough to derail a moving train.
Organisers had insisted the event would continue despite the challenges, but on Monday they confirmed the scouts would be evacuated and the campsite closed due to the approaching typhoon.
Scores of horses suffer sunstroke at Japan samurai event
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 8, 2023 -
Organisers of an annual horse festival in Japan where riders dressed as samurai re-enact battles said Tuesday they were considering changing dates for the gathering next year, after sunstroke affected 111 animals, killing two of them.
Japan has recorded its hottest average July temperatures in over 100 years, and on Tuesday heatstroke alerts were in place in 26 out of 47 prefectures, with the mercury forecast to hit 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in places.
At least 111 horses -- and dozens of people -- needed treatment for sunstroke at the Soma Nomaoi festival in Fukushima prefecture from July 29 to 31, after temperatures touched 35 degrees, the hottest in five years, organisers said.
Two of the animals died, they said.
The annual three-day event, which features more than 400 participants dressed as medieval samurai warriors fighting on horseback over flags that are shot overhead by fireworks, attracted more than 120,000 people, reports said.
Yoshichika Hirata, a member of the festival's executive committee, told AFP that changing the date of next year's event to a cooler period would be discussed at a meeting on Thursday.
"We sprinkled water on the track for the first time, as extreme heat was expected. We used three water-sprinkler cars, but water dried up quickly," Hirata said.
One horse died during last year's festival, after which a majority of riders supported a plan to change the date, according to a survey done in December.
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