'What was the point of using all that money'

On Dec. 5, President Yoon Suk-yeol held a state dinner with Vietnam’s President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. This was Phuc’s first state visit since Yoon was inaugurated last May. It was also the first time that the Yeongbin-gwan, or the State Guest House inside the Blue House, was used for a summit.

The summit was originally scheduled to be held at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan District, central Seoul, which was also where a state dinner was held when President Joe Biden visited Korea in May. However, the dinner was ultimately held at the Yeongbin-gwan.

As a series of confrontations between the ruling and opposition parties continue over the allocation of additional budgets to complete the relocation of the Presidential Office by the end of the year, it seems that the Yeongbin-gwan was chosen as it was the most suitable location to host a formal event. Deputy presidential spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung said in a briefing that the use of the Yeongbin-gwan is “meaningful in terms of historical and traditional inheritance and in reusing practical spaces.”

The government’s plan to build a new guest house in accordance to the Presidential Office relocating to Yongsan is currently on hold. After criticism rose over the plan to spend 87.8 billion won ($66 million) to build a new guest house in September, President Yoon Suk-yeol scrapped the plan completely.

#should_have_just_stayed

“To use the term “reuse” means that they threw out a useful space in the first place.”
“What was the point of using all that money to move to Yongsan?”

#nothing_wrong_with_using_it

“Since the Blue House is now the citizen’s, the Blue House should naturally be used for events that are of national interest.”
“There is no other solution as they are opposed to building a new guest house.”

BY KIM AH-YOUNG, LEE JUNG-JOO [lee.jungjoo@joongang.co.kr]