Yoon Suk-yeol Looking to Move Presidential Office to the Yongsan Defense Ministry Building
Yoon Suk-yeol campaigned on reducing the size of the Presidential office and it appears moving it out of the Blue House to possibly the Defense Ministry compound is how he plans to do this:
The defense ministry compound in Yongsan, central Seoul, has emerged as a new candidate to host the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol government’s presidential office, officials close to the president-elect said Tuesday.
Yoon is pushing for the dismantling of Cheong Wa Dae, a secluded compound of the current presidential office and residence, and its relocation to the Seoul Government Complex in Gwanghwamun Square at the heart of the capital in accordance with his campaign pledges to depart from imperial presidency and better communicate with people and the press.
But critics have raised concern that Gwanghwamun, a busy downtown area, is unfit as the venue of the presidential office and its supplementary facilities due to security and other reasons.
Yoon is now actively considering relocating Cheong Wa Dae, also known as the Blue House, to Yongsan’s defense ministry compound due to its potential advantages in security management, according to the officials.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the article states the Defense Ministry has enough office space to accommodate the amount of Presidential office employees Yoon plans to bring over. If this happens this will be a big win for the ROK military which will have easier access to the incoming Yoon administration.
Yoon is looking better all the time!
Moving the seat of the presidency far away from the DMZ might be nice.
He can also save space by using bunk beds at Yongsan.
The idea of Yoon moving into the MND compound is intriguing.
And the current layout and design of the Blue House is dysfunctional considering that the Presidential Office is in the main building while the President’s aides and staff are housed in seperate building hundreds of meters away from the main building.
However, unlike what GIKorea claims, the MND compound doesn’t exactly have any empty floor space lying around which means some departments will have to move out to make space for Yoon and his staff.
This also means the MND will have to rent space in nearby buildings to house the departments that will have to move out.
If one considers the above and if Yoon really wants to show that he isn’t an ‘Imperial President’ by not staying in the Blue House, the best way may be for the government to build a new presidential office building in Sejong City.
This way he will be closer to the government ministries in Sejong City while being far away from the DMZ as suggested by Kevin Kim.
But, at the end of the day, it’s Yoon’s call.
This is the type of thing you do when you expect NK shelling but want it to be in an area where they have to consider SK civilian casualties.
Saejong is a poorly designed crap city thrown together in the neo post-Soviet decay architectural style and an embarrassing shame to Korea and Koreans…
…that could have been an international tourist destination with a tiny bit of forethought (and probably without a bit of corruption).
This is a clever plan to protect himself and still keep things rolling in Seoul.
You can only tell it is Tbilisi, Georgia by the discoloration properties of the Soviet paint.
And… Sejong… sparkling.
@TOK, it is not what I am claiming, the article says the Defense Ministry has sufficient free space:
Regardless I like the idea of relocating to Sejong City better.
An article from Ye Old Chosun in regards to Yoon’s expected decision to move into the MND compound.
Apparently, it’s not the clean cut and dried process that some have been led to believe.
The article is in Korean, so I took the liberty to translate the key points.
https://www.chosun.com/politics/politics_general/2022/03/17/P3HNZBR6GNDUVI356ASXZ4ABEY/
According to sources, the Ministry of National Defense has issued a preparation order so that if an official order is issued, the 1,000 employees working on the 10 floors of the new MND building can quickly complete the relocation by the end of this month. It takes about a month to remodel the new government building in line with the inauguration of the new government on May 10, so the employees must move by the end of this month.
The problem is that it is not physically easy for about 1,000 employees to move in a short period of only one to two weeks, and there is not much free space in other buildings within the Ministry of National Defense. The Ministry of National Defense has prepared a “push-out” plan to move the departments in the new building of the Ministry of National Defense to the Joint Chiefs of Staff building and the Ministry of National Defense Annex (former Ministry of Defense), and the department using the Annex to the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration building in Huam-dong, Yongsan, Seoul.
Yoon Suk-yeol can be the top … and CH can assume his usual position,
“This also means the MND will have to rent space in nearby buildings to house the departments that will have to move out.” Not exactly true; just move them into the MOU compound. The people there can do exactly the high quality of work they do today through telework.
“Yoon Suk-yeol can be the top … and CH can assume his usual position”
I don’t understand.
What does me having my dìck in your mouth have to do with this?
Maybe the idea is that he feels the Blue House is full of people who will do whatever they can to sabotage his Presidency. The whole place is probably loaded with cameras and listening devices, anyway.
The MND compound is actually ideal (hardened, helo pad, etc.) and I don’t think anyone is expecting to evict MND without a suitable and fully functional alternate location. I would imagine a sizeable MND liaison team would remain and it’s not unfeasible for a small patch of Yongsan to be repurposed as the actual MND future. Some of us can remember when there was only 1 major building in the MND compound.
Some of us can remember when there was only 1 major building in the MND compound.
Such simplistic view of the issue at hand.
I wonder how our seemingly independent Slav, Drago would have reacted if it was Lee not Yoon who suggested that the Defense Ministry should move out so he could set up shop there?
I’m good with it either way. The Blue House is a current mess built in a time of need without the protection needed by modern measures. I am glad that Lee didn’t win; he isn’t a communist, he isn’t a socialist; he’s so much worse based on everything reported and proven.
KP: thank you for again attacking the person not the message or content of any posts. Also, why do you hate Slavs? Just kidding but why did you need to mention it after calling me Russian?