Presidential Office: "Budget for Delivery Centers and Cyber Systems Unrelated to Yongsan Relocation"

Actively Clarifying Through Two Announcements

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] On the 21st, the Presidential Office issued two notices reiterating that additional budgets reported to have occurred due to the relocation to Yongsan, such as the construction of a parcel inspection center, establishment of a cyber safety management system, and facility remodeling, are "unrelated to the office relocation."

In a press release in the afternoon, the Presidential Office responded to reports from Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Deuk-gu's office stating that the Presidential Office allocated 2.96 billion KRW in construction costs under the name of "facility management and improvement" for next year, saying, "This is unrelated to the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan."

The Presidential Office claimed, "This budget is allocated annually by government agencies for the maintenance, repair, and management of aging facilities," adding, "It is a budget that has been executed annually by previous administrations that used the existing Blue House office." Furthermore, they explained, "The budget included in the 2023 budget proposal is actually less than the amount executed by the previous government," and "It is a housekeeping budget for wall repairs, replacement of drainage pumps, replacement of broken light bulbs, and maintenance, repair, and management of the press room air conditioning, press cafeteria, and restrooms are also executed with this budget."

The Presidential Office also disclosed the execution amounts of this budget over the past five years since 2018. According to the data, the execution amounts were 4.78 billion KRW in 2018, 4.78 billion KRW in 2019, 6.59 billion KRW in 2020, 6.56 billion KRW in 2021, and 4.79 billion KRW in 2022.

In a notice issued earlier that morning, the Presidential Office mentioned projects included in the budget such as the construction of the parcel inspection center and the establishment of the cyber safety management system, stating, "These are completely unrelated to the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan," and urged caution against reports that forcibly link project budgets executed by previous governments to the costs of relocating the presidential office to Yongsan.

Regarding the parcel inspection center, the Presidential Office said, "This project was decided and initiated in 2021 during the Moon Jae-in administration, which used the Blue House office, and it is not a matter decided to be newly constructed by our government," adding, "The first phase of the project is underway starting this year, and the government is continuing it to ensure business continuity." They emphasized, "The need to modernize security facilities to prepare for increasingly sophisticated terrorist threats was raised by the previous government."

Regarding the cyber safety management system, the Presidential Office stated, "This is a budget for building a system to strengthen cyber security at the national level for all government ministries and public institutions, not a budget solely for the Presidential Office," pointing out, "While detection facilities exist in case of hacking threats to national agencies, an integrated system to manage whether follow-up measures are taken has been insufficient, and the need to build such a system has been raised since the previous government." They added, "The Presidential Office is promoting this project as the control tower for national cyber safety to ensure there are no security gaps, and it is clearly unrelated to the relocation of the office to Yongsan."

Regarding the allocation of 500 million KRW under the name of the "1st Anniversary Event of the Presidential Office Relocation," the Presidential Office said, "It is part of an event to communicate with the public on the occasion of the first anniversary of the inauguration, and similar events were also held by previous administrations."