South Korea’s decision to return its presidential office to the Blue House, undoing Yoon Suk-yeol’s costly relocation, has reopened old questions over the superstitions said to have driven the impeached ex-president’s decision.
The move is widely viewed as rolling back a legacy tarnished by the former leader’s failed attempt to impose martial law last year. Yoon had insisted on moving his office despite the high costs to taxpayers and security concerns.
“The presidential office will leave behind the ‘Yongsan era’ and relocate to where the president originally was – where the president should be – the Blue House,” President Lee Jae-myung’s chief of staff, Kang Hoon-sik, said on Sunday, adding that the move should be completed around Christmas.
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Yongsan refers to the district of Seoul where Yoon moved the office shortly after his election in 2022.
The former leader had pledged never to enter Cheong Wa Dae, or the Blue House, the traditional presidential compound located near Gyeongbokgung Palace at the foot of Mount Bukak, in northern Seoul.
Arguing that “space shapes consciousness”, Yoon told a live-streamed press conference in March 2022 that he wanted to abandon the “palace-like” Blue House that he said symbolised an “imperial presidency”.
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