The first building you see when you enter Yongsan Park near Exit 1 of Ichon Station on the Seoul Subway is the General's Residence.
The headquarters of the 7th Division of the U.S. Army, which received the surrender of the Japanese forces in 1945, stayed here.
From old American houses to wooden telephone poles, it preserves the 1950s as if time had stopped.
If you follow the Sycamore Road that runs on both sides in front of the General's Residence and turn the corner twice, you will come to a wide road called the 10th Army Corps Road.
This is the way to the observatory where you can see the presidential office at a glance.
Part of this Yongsan Park site will be open to 2,500 people a day for 10 days starting tomorrow (10th).
Reservations can be made online up to five days prior to your visit, and some even take you to the front yard of the Oval Office.
However, there are criticisms that the opening is too hasty.
This is because they are polluted by pouring pollutants such as oil on the ground while the US military is stationed.
In an actual government investigation, arsenic, a class 1 carcinogen, was detected above the standard level in the ground and groundwater.
The previous government took the position that the land could be cleaned up for at least 7 years before it could be released, but the new government took measures to reduce it, such as laying artificial turf in the contaminated area, and explains that there is no problem as the visit time is short, less than 2 hours.
[Kim Bok-hwan/Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Urban Policy Officer: We plan to open it with the highest priority for the safety of visitors by planning the route, opening range, opening time, and program well.]
The government announced that it would reopen temporarily in September after collecting opinions through this pilot opening.
(Video coverage: Kim Hak-mo / Editing: Park Ki-duk / Production: D Content Planning Department)