Relocation of Presidential Office in Seoul Heightens Security Concerns

SEOUL — When North Korea on Thursday performed a check of its most ​highly effective intercontinental ballistic missile to this point, South Korea’s Protection Ministry was busy with one other pressing activity: planning to maneuver.

Earlier this month, South Korea’s president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol, introduced plans to maneuver the Protection Ministry to a different constructing in Seoul in order that his presidential workplace may transfer into the ministry’s present headquarters by Might 10, the day of his inauguration.

The ministry was caught off guard by Mr. Yoon’s choice, which got here at a time when North Korea is quickly escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has typically used presidential transitions as a chance to make a present of drive. This yr, the confusion created by Mr. Yoon’s plan to relocate each the presidential workplace and the Protection Ministry may add to the South’s safety considerations, analysts mentioned.

The present presidential workplace is located within the Blue Home, a secluded compound with sleek pine timber and manicured lawns, nestled between the capital’s historical Gyeongbokgung Palace and Mt. Bukaksan. Throughout his election marketing campaign, Mr. Yoon mentioned he would make the Blue Home a park and “return it to the individuals.”

The Blue Home has been the seat of presidential energy for the reason that start of South Korea on the finish of World Struggle II. Its location has come to represent the secrecy and unbridled energy of the president. Virtually all South Korean presidents have been both imprisoned or embroiled in corruption scandals after leaving workplace.

South Korea’s social media was abuzz with rumors that Mr. Yoon’s spouse, Kim Kun-hee, had been advised by shamans that the Blue Home was cursed and shouldn’t be occupied by the president-elect. Mr. Yoon’s transition workforce dismissed these rumors as groundless.

“I do know there may be concern that I’m hurrying an excessive amount of to maneuver the presidential workplace,” Mr. Yoon mentioned at a information convention on Sunday. “However I believed that after I moved into the Blue Home, it will change into harder to get out of the place, an emblem of imperial energy of the president.”

Transferring each the presidential workplace and the Protection Ministry — with their underground bunkers geared up with delicate tools to take care of nationwide emergencies like North Korea’s navy provocations — instantly incited outrage in South Korea. In a survey this week, almost 54 % of the respondents mentioned they opposed the hasty transfer.

Mr. Yoon first mentioned his new workplace can be at a authorities complicated a number of blocks from the Blue Home, however after the election, he realized that his plan was infeasible as a result of the busy space would create insurmountable safety dangers, in addition to visitors jams and different inconveniences for residents. He finally settled on the Protection Ministry’s present headquarters in Yongsan, a district in central Seoul.

One in all Mr. Yoon’s most vocal critics on the plan is the outgoing president, Moon Jae-in, whose workplace mentioned the president-elect’s plan would go away South Korea badly ready for North Korean provocations, like its check launch of the brand new Hwasong-17 missile on Thursday. Mr. Moon had additionally promised to maneuver the presidential workplace out of the Blue Home, however ditched the plan after his election.

Mr. Moon’s authorities has refused to allocate the 49.6 billion received ($41 million) that Mr. Yoon has requested for the transfer, citing the disruption it will trigger for the rest of his time period. Mr. Yoon has vowed to press forward along with his plan, saying if the transfer isn’t accomplished by Might 10, he would proceed to work within the workplace of his transition workforce.

Within the interim, Mr. Yoon’s workforce mentioned he would take care of North Korean provocations from a cell state of affairs room — a minibus geared up with massive screens and high-speed encrypted communication gear that South Korean presidents use when touring outdoors Seoul.

The dysfunction of the transition has created a chance for North Korea, analysts mentioned, and the timing of Thursday’s launch allowed the North to “greet the newly elected conservative South Korean president with a message about who’s the massive canine on the Peninsula,” mentioned Daniel R. Russel, a former United States diplomat who’s now vp of the Asia Society Coverage Institute in New York.

Through the marketing campaign, Mr. Yoon vehemently criticized Mr. Moon’s coverage of looking for dialogue with North Korea, at the same time as its chief, Kim Jong-un, quickly expanded the nation’s nuclear and missile applications. Mr. Yoon has championed a stronger alliance with Washington and a harder stance on the North. He has additionally proposed rejuvenating the joint United States-South Korean navy workouts that have been scaled down underneath Mr. Moon.

North Korea has mentioned that “hostile” acts like joint navy drills have been a part of the rationale it has developed a “nuclear warfare deterrent” in opposition to its enemies.

In response to photographs launched by the North’s state media, the Hwasong-17 launch on Thursday confirmed no less than one main technical advance: Its first-stage booster rocket had 4 nozzles, in contrast with two for the North’s earlier Hwasong-15 ICBM.

North Korea appeared to have clustered two Hwasong-15 booster engines to present extra energy to the Hwasong-17, which soared 3,852 miles into house earlier than crashing down into waters west of Japan. If the North flattens the trajectory, it may well ship the missile 9,320 miles, a variety nice sufficient to cowl the entire of the continental United States, missile specialists mentioned.

Mr. Yoon’s transition workplace referred to as the launch a “grave provocation” and urged the U.N. Safety Council to debate how one can punish North Korea for its aggression.