Relinquish “imperial” power
With the confirmation of the relocation of the Blue House to the Defense Ministry’s compound in Yongsan-gu, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol vowed to give up his “imperial” power. That is, Mr. Yoon will begin his five-year term at the new Presidential Office in Yongsan-gu right after taking office on May 10. The Cheong Wa Dae area will be fully open to the public on the same day.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol introduces the new Presidential office located in the building of the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu. Photo: AP
“I understand the concerns that I may be in a hurry to move the Office of the President with only 50 days left of my term. But, I determined that it would be much more difficult to move away from the symbol of imperial power. – Cheong Wa Dae, after moving into the Ministry of Defense property, we believe that it is right to make a quick decision and move forward with the plan to move to the new building, if we consider the discomfort that residents have may encounter and the fact that we are returning Cheong Wa Dae to the people,” said Mr. Yoon.
In fact, Mr. Yoon Suk-yeol has repeatedly pledged during the election campaign that his government will move the Presidential Office from the current Cheong Wa Dae area to another place to return this area to the people. The pledge came as a response to many critics’ view of Cheong Wa Dae as a symbol of an emperor-like president and a place that blocks communication between the president and the public due to its remote location. its.
The Blue House complex has an area twice as large as the US White House. Yoon and key members of his presidential transition committee visited the Defense Ministry compound and the State Department building on March 18 to determine where the new Presidential Office will be in the next five years. next year. In the end, the team decided that the Yongsan-gu area was the best location for relocation, as other areas would require extensive modification and financial investment to ensure the Presidential Office was adequately supplied. security and administrative efficiency while not causing inconvenience to the public.
It is noteworthy that the new Presidential Office will also be near the site of the former Yongsan base of US military forces in South Korea, which is planned to be converted into a public park after the site is returned. entirely to the Seoul government. Some areas of the base are expected to be opened to the public in June, a month after Mr. Yoon takes office.
Besides the office move, Mr. Yoon will also move his presidential palace from Cheong Wa Dae to the official residence of the Army Chief of Staff in Hannam-dong, also located in Yongsan-gu. The President-elect will take about 5 minutes to travel from the mansion to the new Presidential Office. For this transition, the ROK Ministry of National Defense will move to the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters while the agency will be moved to the Capital Defense Command in Gwanak-gu, south of Seoul.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said, “The Defense Ministry compound is fully equipped with national security command facilities, allowing us to fully return Cheong Wa Dae to the people and almost do not cause inconvenience to them when operating other security services.Yongsan area has been developed based on the protection of military facilities, so no additional regulations will be imposed even if The Office of the President has been moved.”
Bad feng shui
The Blue House is located on the same site that was once the residence of the head of the colonial government of the Japanese empire, which occupied the Korean Peninsula between 1910-1945. In the past, this area was used to train guards of the Chosen dynasty (1392-1910) and bury the concubines of kings.
The Blue House is located in the Cheong Wa Dae area. Photo: AP
Syngman Rhee, the first President of South Korea, named the Blue House in 1948. He lived there during the Korean War (1950-1953) and until he was overthrown by an uprising in 1960. His democratically elected successor was Yoon Bo-seon, although he served only briefly as president before being overthrown by a coup led by army general Park Chung-hee.
Mr. Park Chung-hee ruled Korea for nearly two decades before his assassination in 1979. Subsequent presidents at the Blue House, such as Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, were jailed. for corruption. During Mr. Kim Young-sam’s time at the Blue House from 1993-1998, he witnessed the collapse of the Korean economy in the midst of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The successor President Kim Dae-jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, seems to have avoided the intervention of “bad luck” from the Blue House when pulling the country out of the financial crisis and co-hosting the World Cup. 2002 with Japan as well as holding the first inter-Korean summit. But, the following 3 presidents were not so lucky. Roh Moo-hyun took his own life amid investigation into a corruption case involving his wife, while Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye were both jailed for corruption and abuse. use power.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol (centre) with transition committee members in Seoul. Photo: Yonhap
Feng shui practitioners say the location of the Blue House is interrupted by adverse natural energies, or chi, that bring bad luck and ill health to those living there. So, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is certainly not the first to try to relocate the Presidential Office, on the contrary, the idea has been discussed for many years.
President Moon Jae-in had said he would move the Presidential Office before taking office in 2017 but withdrew the plan due to security and logistics concerns. In the end, this proposal was canceled after more than 1 year because the location chosen in Gwanghwamun proved unsuitable. And initially, Mr. Yoon’s transition committee also planned to choose the Seoul government complex in Gwanghwamun as the location of the new Presidential Office. But, amid security concerns, they turned to the Ministry of Defense complex in Yongsan district.
Feng shui practitioners describe Yongsan, which means dragon mountain, as a good place to seat power because of its location between a hill and the Han River. Choi Jin, head of the Institute for Leadership Studies in Seoul, said the decision to relocate the Presidential Office would cause the budget to “burden huge costs” and stressed “I don’t think considering the water is a factor”. However, Lee Jae-oh, a senior politician and adviser to the People’s Power party, insists that “there is no other explanation – other than feng shui as to why the location in Yongsan is so bad.” selected.
Controversies
South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s push to move his office out of the vast Blue House complex has drawn criticism from the opposition. The president’s Democrats called the proposed move “hasty and absurd” and said it raised national security concerns by distracting the Department of Defense and the military. time of heightened tension following North Korea’s recent series of missile tests. Democrats also accused Mr. Yoon of a lack of communication with the public in making the decision.
The Ministry of National Defense’s compound in Yongsan-gu. Photo: Handout
“Is it right to coercively decide on important national issues without the consent of the people? The president-elect said that he will give up imperial power but I want to ask the opposite, whether Is this a form of imperialist power?” Rep. Koh Yong-jin, a spokesman for the Democratic Party, asked in a statement on March 20. Meanwhile, members of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee argued that moving the President’s Office to the Defense Department complex because it is currently limited to the public and would make it easier for the president to access. with more people.
Several other conservative Democratic Party officials said there may be other considerations of action, such as accusing Yoon of being influenced by feng shui masters of Chinese origin who have said the Blue House is not a good location. A senior member of the Democratic Party even alleged that in the run-up to the election, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol invited a shaman to join his campaign. But, so far, Mr. Yoon has denied this information and only revealed that it was a Buddhist monk.
According to Korean media reports, the plan to relocate the Presidential Office will cost 1 trillion won (equivalent to 822.7 million USD). Yonhap news agency quoted the Interior Ministry as estimating the cost to transfer to the Defense Ministry at about 50 billion won ($41.14 million). A spokesman for the President-elect affirmed that this will not waste taxpayers’ money.
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