South Korea President Lee Jae Myung at the Blue House in Seoul on the first anniversary of the declaration of martial law by ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol. - AFP
SEOUL: South Korea is preparing to relocate the presidential office back to the Blue House in a move aimed at erasing former leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s legacy a year after his failed bid to put the country under martial law triggered months of political instability.
"The presidential office will leave the Yongsan era behind and relocate back to the Blue House, where the presidents have traditionally been and should be,” President Lee Jae Myung’s chief of staff, Kang Hoon-sik, said on Sunday (Dec 7). The move is to be completed by year-end.
Yoon moved the presidential office to the defence ministry’s compound in Yongsan, central Seoul, upon his inauguration in 2022, maintaining that the relocation would make the presidency more democratic by putting the administation closer to the public.
Yoon had blasted the Blue House, about 5km away from the current presidential office, as a "symbol of imperial power.”
The former president was removed from office over his ill-fated martial law bid and is now in jail facing an insurrection trial.
The Blue House complex sits in the northern part of Seoul, occupying an area of some 250,000sq m nestled behind Gyeongbok Palace.
Nearby is Gwanghwamun Square, the historical locus of mass protests in South Korea including those that brought an end to Yoon’s presidency and, before that, former President Park Geun-hye’s following a corruption scandal.
It is also flanked by mountains, which makes it a natural fortress against potential North Korean artillery attacks - even though the regime has still attempted to breach the grounds.
In 1968, North Korean commandos disguised as South Koreans climbed the mountains and raided the complex in an unsuccessful attempt to kill then-President Park Chung-hee. - Bloomberg
