Korea's new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, gets fresh start in new location

Politics

Published: 09 May. 2022, 23:01 Updated: 10 May. 2022, 12:45

Korea's new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, gets fresh start in new location

A view of the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan District, central Seoul, the site of the new presidential office, one day before the inauguration of President Yoon Suk-yeol Monday. The banner with a phoenix symbol reads “Again, Republic of Korea! A new nation of the people.” [NEWS1]

With the inauguration of Yoon Suk-yeol, a new era begins for the Korean presidency. Yoon will be the first Korean president to separate himself completely from the Blue House, the isolated compound at the foot of Mount Bukak in central Seoul.

From his first day, Yoon will work at the Defense Ministry compound in Yongsan District, central Seoul, the site of the new presidential office.

Immediately after his inauguration, the Blue House compound will be thrown open to the public, a concrete symbol of Yoon's determination to deliver change and be a different kind of leader than all those who preceded him.

As a campaign pledge, Yoon promised to move the presidential office to the central government complex in Gwanghwamun in downtown Seoul to make it less isolated and more approachable to the public and press.

Because of cost and logistic issues, Yoon ultimately chose the Defense Ministry in Yongsan as the site of his presidential office. Some questioned his haste. Others worried about security concerns, or whether an office location should be top priority for a new president in the first place.

The Blue House, or Cheong Wa Dae, is nestled at the foot of Mount Bukak behind Gyeongbok Palace, the main royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), in northern Gwanghwamun.

The compound has been the president’s office and residence since the South Korean government was established in 1948.

However, due to its seclusion and the weird distance between the president's office and those of his aides — situated in a separate building — the Blue House compound has become a symbol of Korea’s so-called "imperial presidency,” and also the cause of acute loneliness felt by several presidents.

Yoon was not the first president to want to move out of the Blue House. His immediate predecessor, Moon Jae-in, also wanted to make the move but ended up staying for security and other practical reasons.

But Yoon refused to spend even the first few days there, and will work out of a temporary office in the Defense Ministry building. He will commute from his home in southern Seoul until his new residence is ready.

Yoon has the next five years in office to prove to the public that a more “approachable” president is possible — and that the big move was more than a flashy symbolic gesture by a president who becomes as "imperial" as his predecessors regardless of where he works.

History of the house

For decades, the Blue House, located at Sejong-ro 1 in northern Gwanghwamun, has been a mysterious place for the general public because of limited access, the tough security surrounding the area, and a general assumption that the Korean who holds the most power must get up to unusual things. As the residence of both dictators and democratically elected leaders — and a democratically elected leader whose father was the longest serving dictator — it's a structure that has certainly had momentous events take place within its walls, and monumental turning points as well.

The 250,000-square-meter compound includes the main presidential office, the official residence, the Yeongbingwan state guest house, the Yeomingwan presidential secretariat, the Chunchugwan press center, the Sangchunjae guest house and the lush Nokjiwon outdoor garden.

The main building's roof was built with 150,000 blue tiles. Underneath it is the president's office, the Sejong Room where Cabinet meetings are held, and the Jiphyeon Room for summit talks with foreign leaders. The vast grounds are home to over 50,000 trees of 180 species, and the compound is more than three times larger than the White House's. Getting between some of the buildings can be quite a trek.

The compound dates back over 1,000 years. It was the site of royal palace halls during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) and a part of the rear garden of Gyeongbok Palace during the Joseon Dynasty.

Eventually, it became the Japanese governor-general's official residence during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

With the establishment of the Korean government in 1948, Syngman Rhee used the site as the presidential office and residence after naming it Gyeongmudae.

In 1960, after the inauguration of President Yun Po-sun, it was renamed Cheong Wa Dae, literally “Pavilion of Blue Tiles."

The main building was completed in 1991, during the Roh Tae-woo administration.

At the ceremony marking the completion of the building in September 1991, Roh said, "Presidents have used the narrow house built by the Japanese imperial government 52 years ago as the presidential office and residence... With a new Blue House built with Korean technology and materials, we share the joy of achieving today's dignified nation and promise a bright future for us all.”

The old Japanese governor-general’s residence was demolished in 1993 during the Kim Young-sam presidency.

“There has been talk about moving the presidential office for over 30 years, dating back to President Kim Young-sam,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University. “The location of the Blue House, going beyond it being closed off to the public, can geographically be compared to a massive dead end alley. Thus, the people have no idea what is going on there. That’s why all sort of rampant speculation is possible, which has resulted in unnecessary societal costs.”

And that is about to change.

Why move?

From the start, Yoon Suk-yeol was adamant he would never move into the Blue House, calling it a "symbol of imperialism,” a purely domestic reference to the Korean governmental system that gives its presidents too much power.

After winning the March 9 presidential election, Yoon wasted no time following through on his pledge. He personally announced plans to relocate the presidential office to Yongsan that same month, a decision called too hasty by many, even his predecessor.

No part of Yoon’s presidential inauguration ceremony will be held in the Blue House compound. The ceremony itself will take place on the plaza in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido. The inaugural dinner will be held at The Shilla Seoul's Yeong Bin Gwan guesthouse, a traditional hanok annex to the hotel in central Seoul.

Some have speculated that pungsu jiri, Korea’s system of geomancy akin to feng shui, played a hand in the incoming administration’s determination to move.

Experts are divided on the cosmic energy of the Blue House site, although history is less vague on the misfortunes that have befallen former presidents, including assassination, impeachments and a tendency for former occupants to end up behind bars.

Choi Chang-jo, a former professor of geography at Seoul National University, wrote in his 2000 book “Tears of the Land, Hopes of the Land” that the site of the Blue House was “a place where dead souls live.”

However, political experts point to less ethereal reason for an immediate move.

“The relocation needs to take place before the start of a new administration,” said Myongji University’s Prof. Shin. “If it takes place after, there are many other tasks to deal with, so it’s impossible to carry out the plan. Previous governments tried to move after the start of their administrations, but they were bogged down many other tasks and ultimately weren’t able to move.”

Yoon's critique of Korea’s “imperial” presidency was frequent during his presidential campaign and Korea’s Constitution is frequently criticized for vesting too much power in the president, which poses the risk of it being abused.

The Blue House is the embodiment of those flaws and has often been compared to an isolated royal palace. With its secluded location, it has failed to shake of memories of past occupants' authoritarian rule and other types of misdeeds.

The president's isolation was highlighted by the Sewol ferry disaster on April 16, 2014, which left more than 300 people dead or missing. A bungled first response to the maritime accident led to questions about the whereabouts of President Park Geun-hye for seven hours. Park remained in the presidential residence during the critical hours instead of working from the presidential office, at times unreachable by her aides.

Park was impeached in 2016 and removed from office in 2017, and her failure to respond to the ferry disaster was one of the causes of her impeachment. Corruption and abuse of power were the others, all reminders to the public of the need for a less isolated president.

The Blue House main office building, where the president is located, is some 500 meters away from the Yeomingwan, a separate building where aides work.

In order to get closer to his aides, Moon Jae-in moved his office to the third floor of the Yeomingwan, but that still placed him on a separate level from aides.

That is not enough for Yoon, who is determined to be less "imperial."

“To put things simply, the United States is a federal government, while France has a semi-presidential system, thus their presidents have less authority than the Korean president,” said Prof. Shin, explaining why Korea has been described as having an “imperial presidency.”

Yoon has promised a system delegating more responsibility to the prime minister. He envisions shifting the excessive concentration of presidential power to Cabinet ministers.

His presidential office will be downsized from the current "three offices and eight secretaries" structure to one with "two offices and five secretaries." Yoon announced earlier this month that he will keep the national security and the chief of staff offices but scrap the national policy adviser's office. He simultaneously did away with several senior presidential secretary positions, including for civil affairs.

“It is true that there has also been some backlash over the presidential relocation issue,” said Shin. “What is important is not so much the location in itself and more the president’s will to reduce his authority to a certain extent. The relocation can be seen as one expression of such an intention.”

He continued, “It’s not just about bringing the people closer to the president. It will help reduce speculation about the presidential office. People will be able to see the president go in and out of his office, and being more frequently sighted by the public means that speculation and the societal costs brought on by such speculation can be decreased.”

Lee Hee-chung, professor of urban planning and design at the University of Seoul, said, “One of the reasons that [Yoon Suk-yeol] pushed for the relocation of the presidential office before his inauguration is to show his will to implement his top campaign pledge, which is also reflective of his philosophy of state affairs.”

He added, “Yongsan’s location also has its own significance and character. It will be a venue to bring the president closer to the people in a different way from before, and I view it as a reflection of [the president’s] vision of a more approachable government.”

Hello, Yongsan!

Yongsan, with its strategic location by the Han River and home to many foreigners in Seoul, has been envisioned as a gateway to the world. But it also has a century-old history of foreign military presences.

Yongsan played an important role as a bridge to the Han River, distributing goods and commodities during the Joseon Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty dispatched troops to Joseon and stationed its army in Yongsan to suppress a military uprising in 1882. It became a Japanese military base after the Sino-Japanese War in 1894.

During its occupation of Korea, the Imperial Japanese Army was stationed near Yongsan Station to ensure a smooth flow of supplies and travelers. After the 1950-53 Korean War, the U.S. Army took over the Japanese military base, and it eventually became the site of the United States Forces Korea’s (USFK) Yongsan Garrison, off-limits to most Koreans.

“At a time when we lacked power and the country was weak, Yongsan was an area that was always under foreign power, pillaged and abused during colonization,” said Prof. Lee.

Korea and the United States agreed in May 2003 to relocate 80 U.S. army bases across the country to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, and Daegu. The USFK and United Nations Command moved their headquarters to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek in 2018, and the United States has begun returning some of the land to Korea.

The Korean government plans to convert the returned land into a 3.03 million square meter national park that extends to Namsan and the Han River. It is supposed to be like Central Park in New York or Hyde Park in London. Initially, the park was slated to be completed by 2027, but it can take longer depending on when the land is fully returned to Korea.

“The Yongsan location is significant as it is the center of Seoul,” said Lee. “Our country also has expanded. We are now a part of the expanded G7 [Group of Seven] and our economy is among the top 10 in the world. As our country’s power and status increased, Yongsan, through the Han River, is a gateway to the world.”

Yoon has suggested the name "People's House" for the new presidential office in Yongsan. The actual name will be chosen through a public contest.

The prosecutor-turned-politician envisions an office similar to Washington’s White House and something like the Rose Garden, where the leader can simply step outside and give press conferences and communicate with the public. In response to critics who say that the Defense Ministry compound is also closed off, Yoon said he hopes that the opening of Yongsan Park will bring the public closer.

Lee added, “It’s not time to be half-hearted or passive, and as Korea becomes more and more international, Yongsan has to become a hub that is befitting of its political and economic status. Our national power has grown, and Seoul has also expanded; that’s the meaning of a Yongsan era.”

As for the old seat of presidential power, the Blue House, the Yoon administration is throwing it open to the public.

The Blue House compound and Mount Bukak's hiking trails in central Seoul will be open to the public starting Tuesday after the inauguration ceremony of President Yoon Seok-yeol. [NEWS1]

Open sesame

On Jan. 21, 1968, 31 heavily armed North Korean commandos tried to storm the Blue House to assassinate President Park Chung Hee.

The elite special operation forces from North Korea’s People’s Army’s Unit 124, who trained for the mission for months, got as close as 800 meters to the presidential office.

They ultimately failed: 29 commandos were killed, one was captured and one escaped. Dozens of South Korean soldiers, police officers and civilians were killed or injured.

Security around the Blue House was jacked up. Public tours of the compound, which dated back to 1960, were halted for decades. The Blue House became a fortress.

The Moon Jae-in government opened up the road in front of the Blue House for 24 hours in June 2017 and has worked to make the highly-secured area more accessible. Moon pledged to return Mount Bukak to the public. Restrictions on the northern side of the mountain were lifted in November 2020 and on the southern side early last month.

Today, the fortress walls will crumble. The Blue House will be open to the public at noon, immediately after Yoon's inauguration.

For the time being, visits will be limited to 39,000 people per day, or up to 6,500 people per two-hour time slot, according to Yoon’s presidential office relocation task force. Blue House tours were previously limited to 1,500 people per day, and under close supervision. With the new tours, people will be able to wander around without guides and freely take photographs of previously restricted areas.

“Once the Blue House is returned to the people, it will be like the unveiling of a secret garden at the back of the Gyeongbok Palace,” said Lee. “It can become a tremendous venue for telling Korea’s development story, and a national symbol. It could also provide an opportunity to introduce a new tour experience, along with the Yongsan presidential office, and can represent the dramatic development of the city of Seoul and the Republic of Korea in modern history.”

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]