Transition team denies Yoon's wife's influence on decision to change presidential residence

The foreign minister's official residence in Seoul's Yongsan District, Sunday, seen from Mount Nam in downtown Seoul. Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition committee, Sunday, denied media reports indicating his wife Kim Keon-hee had exerted influence on Yoon's decision to use the foreign minister's official residence as the new presidential residence.

“After the committee had reached the decision in consideration of security, costs, construction period and other things, Kim made a visit there,” Yoon’s spokesperson, Rep. Bae Hyun-jin of the main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP), said during a press briefing at the committee’s headquarters in central Seoul.

“It is a false report that Kim had an influence on changing the venue of their residence. The relocation of the office and the residence is an issue that the relevant subcommittee has placed emphasis on with many alternatives,” she said.

After deciding in March to move his presidential office to the defense ministry building in Yongsan, Yoon had said earlier this month that he will use the official residence of the Army chief of staff near the ministry as the new presidential residence.

However, the transition team recently backpedaled on the previous plan, saying that the Army chief of staff's residence, built 47 years ago, requires extensive renovations before it can be used as the presidential residence. The committee explained that they belatedly discovered such problems as the Army chief of staff has been using another residence in South Chungcheong Province most of the time.

The transition team said it was a false report that Yoon's wife, Kim, had visited the foreign minister's residence before it was selected by Yoon as the new presidential residence.

As for questions regarding possible traffic congestion due to the incoming president commuting from the proposed residence in Hannam-dong to the new presidential office at the defense ministry complex in Hangangro-dong in Yongsan District, Bae said the committee is seeking the best ways to prevent causing possible inconveniences to the people.