Yoon's office to be called 'Yongsan Presidential Office'

President Yoon Suk-yeol delivers a speech at an event for startups at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, in this May 25 file photo. The presidential office decided to use "Yongsan Presidential Office" as its official name for an undetermined period. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

The presidential office will use "Yongsan Presidential Office" as its official name for an undetermined period after failing to select an appropriate moniker for President Yoon Suk-yeol's office, presidential spokesperson Kang In-sun said, Tuesday.

According to Kang, "Yongsan Presidential Office" will refer not only to Yoon's office, but also to his secretaries' offices. Yongsan refers to Yongsan District in Seoul where the office is located.

"A committee on naming the presidential office was supposed to decide the official name of the office on Tuesday evening, but it decided not to recommend one," Kang said. "This is because none of the five candidate names gained a majority of support in an online poll, while each name also generated negative public opinion. The committee members agreed that it will be difficult to reach a public consensus."

The presidential office held a contest to get the public to pitch ideas and launched a naming committee comprised of humanities scholars and culture experts to review nearly 30,000 entries. Five names ended up on the final list of choices: "The People's House," "Itaewon-ro 22," "The People's Government Office," "Mineum Government Office" and "Bareunnuri."

The word Mineum comes from the Chinese characters meaning "people" and "voice." Bareunnuri roughly translates to "righteous world," while Itaewon-ro 22 is the street address of the presidential office.

In the online poll Kang mentioned, Itaewon-ro 22 was the most popular, gaining approximately 32 percent of the total ballots, followed by The People's House with 28 percent.

However, the names were criticized for not sounding stately enough to describe the top office, compared to Cheong Wa Dae, the name of the previous presidential office in Jongno District, Seoul, according to presidential aides.

Itaewon-ro 22 was criticized for mimicking the name of the British prime minister's office, which is called 10 Downing Street. People's House was criticized for bringing up the image the ruling People Power Party or even North Korea's official name of Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The previous presidential office used the name Cheong Wa Dae for more than 60 years and the new name will also be used for a long period of time, so we decided to take more time" to find a new name, Kang said. "Following the committee's decision, the presidential office will use Yongsan Presidential Office as the official name for a while." The office explained that the name will be used for an undetermined period before "a good name emerges."

The presidential office had been looking for a name after Yoon decided to relocate his office from Cheong Wa Dae to the current one in Yongsan District.

Since Yoon started his presidency at the new office on May 10 less than two months after he announced a relocation plan, the office, which was the former Ministry of National Defense's headquarters, is still undergoing remodeling.

During an interview with The Wall Street Journal in April, Yoon mentioned "People's House" as an example of the presidential office's name, and the U.S. White House also referred to the office as People's House in its press release during President Joe Biden's visit to Seoul last month. However, the name was not officially selected.

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