China News Service, Seoul, March 20 (Liu Xu and Liu Jingni) On the morning of the 20th local time, South Korean President-elect Yin Xiyue held a press conference announcing that the presidential office in the Blue House will be moved to the Ministry of Defense Building in Yongsan District, Seoul. And on the first day of his tenure, that is, on May 10, the Blue House was opened to the outside world.
Previously, Yin Xiyue had promised during his campaign that he would implement the "Gwanghwamun President" plan after he was elected president, that is, the presidential office would be moved to the government building in Gwanghwamun.
According to Yin Xiyue, the Blue House is the symbol of South Korea's "imperial" presidential system, which will be detrimental to the implementation of political reforms.
Yin Xiyue is not the first president-elect to propose to work in Gwanghwamun.
In 2017, after Moon Jae-in was elected president, he also planned to move his office to Gwanghwamun and turn the Blue House into a public rest space, but it failed in the end.
On the 18th of this month, the spokesman for the President-elect of South Korea also publicly stated that the location of the presidential office will be finally narrowed down to the annex of the Seoul Office Building of the Gwanghwamun Central Government, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located, and the National Defense Building in Yongsan District. Department building two places.
In the afternoon of the same day, the members of the handover committee conducted a field visit to the two places to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the candidate places.
At the press conference on the 20th, Yin Xiyue said that because the security measures of the Gwanghwamun government office building did not meet the minimum requirements for the presidential office, and the relevant changes would cause serious inconvenience to nearby residents, Gwanghwamun was finally excluded from the presidential office. Outside the new premises of the office.
On the one hand, the Yongsan Defense Ministry Building, which was finalized this time, has been equipped with certain military security facilities, so there is no need to spend much time and re-planning; Relocated the Ministry of Defense to the Joint Staff Headquarters building in the same district.
It is reported that South Korea and the United States have reached an agreement in 2020. The US military stationed in South Korea will return the Yongsan base originally located in central Seoul to the South Korean government to build a national park, while the garrison will be relocated to the Pyeongtaek base, which was completed in 2017.
Yin Xiyue said that after the relocation, the public can enjoy the scenery of Longshan National Park and see the office of the president representing democracy, thus establishing a closer psychological connection with the government.
In addition, Yin Xiyue also said that the Blue House will be opened to the public on the first day of taking office on May 10, including the main hall, guest house, green garden and Changchunzhai.
Located on the north side of Gyeongbokgung Palace in the center of Seoul, the Blue House is the official residence of the President of South Korea.
After the attempted attack on the president in 1968, the road in front of the Blue House was once regulated to prohibit people from passing freely to ensure the safety of the president.
In June 2017, in order to create a "people-friendly and open presidential palace", Moon Jae-in issued relevant policies to allow the road in front of the Blue House to be open to the public 24 hours a day.
Therefore, Yin Xiyue said that the relocation of the President's Office this time not only reflects the importance attached by the new Korean government to the national defense and military, but also shows its good desire to be closely connected with the people and communicate closely.
According to Korean media speculation, the relocation of the presidential office is expected to cost 49.6 billion won (about 260 million yuan), including the relocation and renovation costs of the Ministry of National Defense, the installation cost of bulletproof windows for bodyguards, and the renovation cost of government buildings.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Yin Xiyue pointed out that the relocation cost is also one of the handover work, and will ask the current government for assistance.
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