SEOUL — When North Korea tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile yet on Thursday, South Korea’s Defense Ministry was busy with another urgent task: making plans to relocate.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol announced plans to move the Defense Ministry to another building in Seoul so that its presidential office will move to its current office by May 10, the day of his inauguration. Ministry headquarters can move.
The ministry was caught off guard by Mr Yoon’s decision, which came at a time when North Korea’s tensions are rapidly mounting on the Korean peninsula. North Korea has often used presidential transitions as an opportunity to show power. This year, the confusion created by Mr. Yoon’s plan to relocate both the presidential office and the Defense Department could add to the South’s security concerns, analysts said.
The current presidential office is located in the Blue House, a secluded site of graceful pine trees and manicured lawns, nestled between the capital’s old Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukaksan Mountain. During his election campaign, Mr Yoon said he would turn the Blue House into a park and “give it back to the people”.
The Blue House has been the seat of presidential power since South Korea’s birth at the end of World War II. The location symbolizes the president’s secrecy and unbridled power. Nearly all South Korean presidents have been either imprisoned or embroiled in corruption scandals after leaving office.
South Korea’s social media was abuzz with rumors that Mr Yoon’s wife Kim Kun-hee had been told by shamans that the Blue House was cursed and should not be occupied by the president-elect. Mr. Yoon’s transition team dismissed those rumors as unfounded.
“I know there are concerns that I am rushing too much to move the presidential office,” Mr Yoon said at a news conference on Sunday. “But I thought once I moved into the Blue House it would be harder to get out, a symbol of the president’s imperial power.”
The relocation of both the presidential office and the Defense Ministry — with their underground bunkers equipped with sensitive equipment to deal with national emergencies such as North Korea’s military provocations — immediately sparked outrage in South Korea. In a survey this week, nearly 54 percent of respondents said they were against the hasty move.
Mr Yoon first said his new office in a government complex would be a few blocks from the Blue House, but after the election he learned his plan was unfeasible as the busy area would pose insurmountable security risks, as well as traffic congestion and other inconveniences. for citizens. He eventually settled in the current headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Yongsan, a district in central Seoul.
One of Mr Yoon’s most vocal critics of the plan has been outgoing president Moon Jae-in, whose office said the president-elect’s plan would leave South Korea ill-prepared for North Korean provocations, such as the test launch of the new Hwasong-17 missile on Thursday. Mr Moon had also promised to move the presidential office out of the Blue House, but dropped the plan after his election.
Mr Moon’s government has refused to allocate the 49.6 billion won ($41 million) that Mr Yoon has requested for the move, citing the disruption it would cause for the remainder of his tenure. Yoon has vowed to go through with his plan, saying that if the move is not completed by May 10, he will continue to work in his transition team’s office.
In the meantime, Mr. Yoon’s team said it would tackle North Korean provocations from a mobile situation room — a minibus equipped with large screens and high-speed encrypted communications equipment that South Korean presidents use when traveling outside of Seoul.
The turmoil of the transition has created an opportunity for North Korea, analysts said, and the timing of Thursday’s launch allowed the North to “greet the newly elected conservative South Korean president with a message about who the big dog is on.” the peninsula,” he said. Daniel R. Russel, a former US diplomat who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.
During the campaign, Mr. Yoon strongly endorsed the policy of Mr. Moon to seek dialogue with North Korea even as its leader, Kim Jong-un, rapidly expanded the country’s nuclear and missile programs. Mr. Yoon has argued for a stronger alliance with Washington and a tougher stance on the North. He has also proposed to rejuvenate the joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which were phased out under Mr Moon.
North Korea has said “hostile” actions such as joint military exercises have been part of the reason it has developed a “nuclear deterrent” against its enemies.
According to photos released by state media of the north, the launch of the Hwasong-17 on Thursday showed at least one major technical advance: The first-stage booster rocket had four nozzles, compared to two for the earlier Hwasong-15 ICBM. from the north.
North Korea appeared to have clustered two Hwasong-15 booster engines to give more power to the Hwasong-17, which flew 3,852 miles into space before crashing into waters west of Japan. If the north flattens its trajectory, it could send the missile 9,320 miles, a range long enough to cover the entire continental United States, missile experts said.
Mr Yoon’s transition office called the launch a “serious provocation” and urged the UN Security Council to discuss how to punish North Korea for its aggression.