Calls for return to Blue House rise after Yoon's impeachment

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Calls for return to Blue House rise after Yoon's impeachment

Published: 23 Dec. 2024, 17:02 Updated: 23 Dec. 2024, 17:04

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

View of the Blue House in central Seoul on May 10, the second year anniversary of its opening [NEWS1]

Following President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment on Dec. 14, calls for the presidential office to move back to the Blue House, in northern Gwanghwamun, from the current location in Seoul's Yongsan District are again emerging.

The Blue House was the original presidential residence, located at the foot of Mount Bugak in central Seoul. It was also the main royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

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

The move is considered controversial to this day, with many questioning the purpose of the relocation. Yoon's presidential residence was also the foreign minister's official residence, causing controversy regarding wasting state budget and compromising security. The controversy was later exacerbated when allegations that a company first lady Kim Keon Hee sponsored was responsible for the renovation.

Ahead of his inauguration in 2022, Yoon described the relocation to Yongsan as a concrete symbol of his determination to deliver change and be a different kind of leader from all those who preceded him by becoming more accessible to the people and press. However, Yoon didn't keep up with the consistent efforts to communicate with the masses during his career, most notably backtracking on his promises to hold daily press briefings.

As a part of Yoon's pledge, the Blue House was opened to the public on May 10, 2022, coinciding with his inauguration. He was the first Korean president to separate himself completely from the Blue House.

"President Yoon's most fatal mistake was relocating the presidential office," said Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, a former conservative presidential hopeful in an interview with local news outlet Monthly Chosun on Wednesday. "The Blue House, like the White House in the United States, is a symbol of Korea. Moving that symbol diminished the president's charisma from the outset and emboldened the opposition."

“Regardless of who the next president is, they will return to the Blue House."

Though no specific calls from the opposition to return the presidential office to the Blue House have arisen recently, such demands have been frequent since the relocation decision.

Presidential Office in Yongsan District, central Seoul on Dec. 13 [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

"The Blue House belongs to the people, while the government is merely a tenant,” said Song Young-gil, former chief of the liberal Democratic Party (DP), in a media interview, during the June 1 local elections in 2022. “When the government changes, restoration to its original state is inevitable.”

“If the DP regains power, the presidential office will return to the Blue House."

At a DP-hosted forum in April 2022 titled "Hasty Relocation of the Yongsan Presidential Office," DP lawmaker Kim Byung-joo, then-member of the National Assembly’s defense committee, said, "Personally, if we regain power, I think we need to return to the Blue House," and criticized Yongsan as "entirely unsuitable for the presidential office."

Political analysts predict that whether the next presidential election is held early, or as scheduled in March 2027, the issue of relocating the presidential office will be a major issue.

During the April 10 general election, Han Dong-hoon, then-leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), pledged to completely relocate the National Assembly to Sejong. This prompted some opposition parties, including the Green Justice Party to argue that the relocation of the presidential office must accompany the Sejong move, or express support for "a constitutional amendment to facilitate the relocation of the administrative capital."

"The rushed relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan raised various suspicions, and with President Yoon now in crisis, the Yongsan presidential office also seems to be in jeopardy,” said a PPP official.

“Regardless of when the next presidential election takes place or who becomes president, it is unlikely that the presidential office will remain in Yongsan."

BY HEO JIN, KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]