Your tax money at work? Drafting of Busan civil servants as safety personnel for BTS concerts draws public ire.

Busan plans to deploy hundreds of city civil servants as safety personnel at this week's BTS concerts. The decision has drawn an angry public response, with critics asking why public workers and tax money should secure a show that a private company stands to profit from.

The backlash began with a post on the workplace app Blind from a user who had verified their status as a civil servant.

Titled "A thousand civil servants are being drafted for the BTS concert, for free," the post argued that the city was effectively bankrolling HYBE, BTS's management company. Blind lets people post only after confirming their employer through a company email.

"It's not held out on the street like the Seoul concert, it's not a free concert and it's not even hosted by the city of Busan," the user wrote.

"For a commercial concert HYBE is putting on to make money, rather than paying for its own security staff, the organizer is using 910 people at the main venue, while 915 ordinary Busan city civil servants, not police or firefighters, have to be drafted. Is that right?"

The two concerts, part of BTS's "Arirang" world tour, run on Friday and Saturday at Busan Asiad Main Stadium. The closing show lands on June 13, the group's debut anniversary.

"Busan City Hall is HYBE's Busan branch labor office," the user stressed, "and free of charge, on work time, drafted Thursday through Saturday."

In a later comment, the user claimed the city would cover costs that should fall to the promoter.

"[The city] plans to use the local government budget to pay the contractor fees HYBE should be covering, including the fees for the civil-servant safety staff," the post said.

The complaint drew a wave of angry replies.

"When civil servants are drafted, they get 10,000 won an hour. HYBE should arrange its own safety measures and put on the show," one user wrote.

"There were plenty of complaints over the Seoul shows too, and Busan looks like more of the same," a third said. "If HYBE has any conscience, it should refuse," another wrote.

The frustration extends inside the city government.

"It isn't even a city-run event. It's a concert where a private company takes 100 percent of the profit, so internally, people can't accept why so many civil servants have to be mobilized for safety management, and there's a lot of discontent," a Busan city official told KBS.

"I don't really understand why money HYBE should be paying has to come out of our taxes."

Tickets for the Asiad Stadium shows run 198,000 won ($130) for general S seats, 220,000 won for general R seats and 264,000 won for a sound-check package. The city expects about 100,000 domestic and foreign visitors during the run.

Busan, for its part, is treating the concerts as a tourism opportunity.

The city will set up a BTS Welcome Center booth for ARMY, the group's fan base, at Busan Station and install commemorative video displays and lighting at major spots including Haeundae and Gwangalli beaches.

On concert days, it will extend subway and bus service and shorten the gaps between trains and buses to ease crowding. For foreign visitors, Gimhae International Airport will expand its international arrivals hall through the early-morning rush until 9 a.m., and the city will hand out a welcome kit that includes discount vouchers for the Visit Busan Pass, a tourism and transit pass.

The dispute echoes one from March, when more than 10,000 civil servants were mobilized as safety personnel for BTS's free comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 21, which drew complaints that the government had thrown public workers at a private event.

BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]