President’s return to Cheong Wa Dae draws cheers, concern from nearby residents

A police officer stands guard outside Cheong Wa Dae in Jongno District, central Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap

For Kim Hyo-sun, life beside Cheong Wa Dae, the longtime presidential office, had been shaped by the quiet rules of a high-security zone. Since her high school years in Seoul’s Hyoja-dong, the 38-year-old’s routines were influenced by the blue-tiled compound that served as the nation’s seat of power for more than 70 years.

That proximity carried trade-offs.

The neighborhood’s rare calm, set apart from Seoul’s bustle, came with constraints that defined daily life in Hyoja-dong.

“There were frequent protests nearby, often causing traffic restrictions and inconvenience,” Kim told The Korea Times. “But the neighborhood felt very safe, with police stationed at every corner around the clock.”

The balance shifted in 2022, after then-President Yoon Suk Yeol moved the presidential office from Cheong Wa Dae to central Seoul’s Yongsan District, describing the compound as authoritarian and insular.

But now, President Lee Jae Myung is returning to Cheong Wa Dae, with the gradual move beginning earlier this week. The return of the presidential office will cost 56 billion won ($38.3 million), while 83.2 billion won was spent on the earlier move to Yongsan.

Monday saw the first press briefing there in three years and seven months, and the incumbent president is expected to start working from the compound next week while commuting from his current official residence in Hannam-dong, until the residence within Cheong Wa Dae is ready. Starting Monday, the presidential phoenix flag will be raised over Cheong Wa Dae, signaling a formal return to the halls of power.

As Cheong Wa Dae returns to its former glory, nearby residents and merchants are weighing what the president’s return will mean for their daily lives and businesses.

Kim Kwang-jae, who has run a Korean restaurant near Cheong Wa Dae for five years, poses in front of his eatery in Jongno District, central Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Park Ung

For Kim Kwang-jae, 63, who has run a restaurant near Cheong Wa Dae in the Seochon neighborhood for five years, the president’s return brings not only a sense of pride but also renewed life to his business. He even regards the protests that often accompany the president’s presence as a benefit.

“When protests are held at Gwanghwamun, traffic is diverted and business suffers,” Kim said. “When protests happen near Cheong Wa Dae, protesters stop by to eat, as they need to grab something anyway. It may inconvenience residents, but for restaurant owners, it’s a positive.”

But business is not the only reason he welcomes the president’s return.

“Cheong Wa Dae carries the history and legacy of past presidents, dating back to Syngman Rhee (Korea’s first president in 1948). I take pride in running a business so close to the president,” Kim said.

Yoon Sung-ae, 52, who has run a pasta restaurant for a decade in Samcheong-dong, another neighborhood near Cheong Wa Dae, hopes the president’s return will help revive the area.

Earlier this year, protests opposing Yoon’s impeachment intensified near the Constitutional Court, close to her restaurant, and police tightened security. That drove customers away, leaving her business struggling to pay even basic utility bills.

“During that time, many restaurants here closed. Only a few managed to survive,” the restaurateur said.

While regular customers from the compound stopped coming after the presidential office moved out, tourists filled part of the gap after it was opened to the public. But she said sales saw little improvement.

“Crowds came only when Cheong Wa Dae first opened to the public and when its closure was discussed. Most of the time, business was slow. The return of government staff working at the compound will bring steadier income,” she said.

Reporters enter Chunchugwan, the presidential office's press center, inside the Cheong Wa Dae compound in Jongno District, central Seoul, Monday, a day after the press center moved to the former presidential compound. Yonhap

For businesses that opened after the presidential office had moved out, however, the outlook remains uncertain.

When Lee, 40, opened a cafe in Seochon about a year ago, he did not expect the political upheaval that would soon ripple through the country, from an impeachment to a snap election that produced a new president.

“I opened the business expecting the area to be driven by tourism, not by government workers,” Lee said, declining to give his full name.

He added that while many nearby shop owners expect business to pick up, he is unsure how often presidential staff will leave the compound and spend money nearby.

Lee Jae-wook, 59, who runs a Korean restaurant in Samcheong-dong, expressed similarly mixed feelings.

“Three years ago, I opened my restaurant after the president left, so I don’t know what it was like before. Sales jumped as crowds poured in amid talk of ending public access to Cheong Wa Dae, but have since fallen about 60 percent,” Lee said.

He said the neighborhood has just one local bus route and few residents, a constraint that leaves Cheong Wa Dae staff as the area’s only steady base of office workers. “That makes their impact on local businesses decisive,” he said.

For some, Cheong Wa Dae’s changed function means losing jobs.

On Tuesday, the Cheong Wa Dae branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the country’s two main labor federations, held a press conference in Yongsan calling for job protections for around 200 contract workers at the compound, who have been employed there since it opened to the public as a tourist destination.

The union said the workers, who handled cleaning, landscaping, security and visitor services, face layoffs once their contracts expire next week. It accused the presidential office of evading responsibility and said it would continue protesting until concrete measures are offered.