Moon Administration Walking Back Cooperation on Presidential Office Move
It didn’t take long for the Moon administration to begin to walk back their supposed cooperation with incoming President-Elect Yoon to move the presidential office to the Defense Ministry building:
Whether President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will be able to relocate the presidential office in time for his May 10 inauguration remains a question even though President Moon Jae-in has promised to look into the matter and render cooperation.
Moon’s remark, made during a dinner meeting with Yoon on Monday, was seen as a step forward for Yoon, because Moon’s office had effectively expressed opposition earlier, saying the envisioned relocation could leave a security vacuum, as it also involves moving the defense ministry in a short period of time.
Moon’s cooperation is key, because the Cabinet should approve a reserve government fund for the plan.
Despite the positive words from Moon, the prospect of finishing the relocation by May 10 as planned is uncertain, as Moon’s offer of cooperation is considered conditional on a “careful” review of the relocation plan. (……)
After initial reports of Moon’s willingness to cooperate on the relocation plan, Cheong Wa Dae insiders cautioned against distorting the president’s latest remarks, saying the emphasis was on a “careful” review of the plan.
Some even claimed there was no change in Moon’s stance, as he had left open the possibility of rejecting the budget proposal for the relocation if it failed to resolve his concerns about leaving a security vacuum.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it is going to be a surprise if this move happens on the timeframe that the incoming Yoon administration is pushing for.
@GIKorea
Your statement about ‘walkback’ is misleading and makes it look like Pres. Moon is flipping back and forth and stalling when it fact Pres. Moon did not promise anything to Pres-elect Yoon other than he will review the budget request and plan and cooperate.
As per the Dong-a, a conservative newspaper, the transistion team is making up a new budget request to discuss with the current administration, as per the result of the dinner meeting between Moon and Yoon on Monday.
It was confirmed on the 31st that President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol’s side is preparing a new budget for relocating the Presidential Office for working-level discussions with the Blue House. This is in accordance with the Blue House dinner meeting between President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon on the 28th, where President Moon Jae-in stated , “I will closely review the budget and cooperate according to the exact relocation plan”. The 46.9 billion won budget that President-elect Yoon announced when he announced his plan to relocate to Yongsan is likely to change.
https://www.donga.com/news/Politics/article/all/20220331/112626756/1
So, how can there be a ‘walkback’; when the budget has not even been formally submitted to the Blue House for discussion?