
Visitors rush to see South Korea's Blue House before presidential return
Lee Jae Myung, who won a snap election on June 3, plans to move into the Blue House soon and access to some buildings will be restricted from mid-July, the presidential office announced last week.
Former leader Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office in April after briefly declaring martial law, broke with decades of tradition by shifting his office and residence out of the compound and opening it to the public.
"I heard this place will likely be closed soon. So I wanted to come at least once before that happened," said An Hyun, 62, an office worker from Wonju in northeastern Gangwon Province who was visiting the Blue House this week.
"Now that I've seen it, it's really neat and tidy. I don't understand why they moved out of here," said An.
Soon after taking office in 2022, Yoon moved the presidential office to a cluster of former defence ministry buildings in another area of central Seoul.
The move whipped up a fierce debate among experts on feng shui, a practice that originated in ancient China to ensure harmony between people and their environment, after some political rivals accused Yoon of being influenced by those who said the Blue House location was inauspicious.
The Blue House, or "Cheong Wa Dae" in Korean, is named after the blue tiles that cover the top of the main building and is nestled in a scenic spot in front of the Bugaksan mountain.
The Blue House Foundation that organises visits said tours to see the ornate state rooms and manicured lawns were fully booked until mid-July.
More than 8 million people had taken the chance to visit the Blue House by mid-June, data from the foundation showed.
After an initial surge of interest when the complex first opened to the public in 2022, the number of monthly visitors had drifted down to average about 160,000 last year, but after Yoon's impeachment visitor numbers hit 260,000 in April and 430,000 in May.
Another visitor this week, Jin Kyung-soo, a 35-year-old middle-school teacher, had also made a reservation to visit after hearing that the new administration planned to move in again.
"We waited in line for about an hour, but it was truly exciting and joyful. I looked around with great hope for what the Lee Jae Myung government will do going forward," said Jin.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim rejects South Korea's appeasement overture
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed an appeasement overture by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo Jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls 'their blind trust' to the alliance with the U.S. and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned August's annual South Korea-U.S. military drills in August, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy.' That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
North Korea says South Korea's overtures 'great miscalculation'
SEOUL, July 28 (Reuters) - North Korea has no interest in any policy or proposals for reconciliation from South Korea, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday in the first response to South Korean liberal President Lee Jae Myung's peace overtures. Kim Yo Jong, who is a senior North Korean ruling party official and is believed to speak for the country's leader, said Lee's pledge of commitment to South Korea-U.S. security alliance shows he is no different from his hostile predecessor. "If South Korea expects to reverse all the consequences of (its actions) with a few sentimental words, there could be no greater miscalculation than that," Kim said in comments carried by official KCNA news agency. Lee, who took office on June 4 after winning a snap election called after the removal of hardline conservative Yoon Suk Yeol over a failed attempt at martial law, has vowed to improve ties with Pyongyang that had reached the worst level in years. In one measure aimed at easing tensions, Lee suspended loudspeaker broadcasts blasting anti-North propaganda across the border and banned the flying of leaflets by activists that had angered Pyongyang. Kim, the North Korean official, said those moves are merely a reversal of ill-intentioned activities by South Korea that should never have been initiated in the first place. "In other words, it's not even something worth our assessment," she said. "We again make clear the official position that whatever policy is established in Seoul or proposal is made, we are not interested, and we will not be sitting down with South Korea and there is nothing to discuss."


Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
South Korea seeks mutually agreeable U.S. trade package
SEOUL, July 26 (Reuters) - South Korea will prepare a trade package that is mutually agreeable with the United States ahead of minister-level meetings planned next week and a U.S. tariff-pause deadline of August 1, the presidential office said on Saturday. The package will include shipbuilding cooperation, a sector of high interest to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who discussed the matter with South Korea's Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan on Friday, it said in a statement. Friday's meeting was a follow-up to a meeting on Thursday, where Lutnick and Kim reaffirmed their commitment to reach a trade deal by August 1, after a joint meeting of finance ministers and top trade envoys that had been scheduled for Friday was postponed. South Korea, facing 25% tariffs, is rushing to reach a trade deal with Washington, with National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac visiting the U.S. recently for high-level talks and Minister for Trade Yeo Han-koo also in the U.S. for negotiations, as pressure grows on officials to clinch a deal that is no worse than Japan's that cut tariffs to 15%. South Korea's trade negotiations with the U.S. have included non-tariff barriers in the agricultural and digital service sectors, but foreign exchange has not been part of trade talks beyond usual consultations, according to South Korean officials. U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Scotland on Friday for bilateral talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, which could yield a trade deal with the European Union, after making a deal earlier this week with Japan and the Philippines. Next week, U.S. officials will hold a new round of trade talks with China in Sweden for an extension to a separate deadline of August 12 set between the two countries. South Korea's Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol and Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will also hold meetings with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and State Secretary Marco Rubio, respectively, next week.