President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol arrives at the office of the Presidential Takeover Committee in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 23rd. By Oh Dae-geun
Blue House bunker or Ministry of National Defense bunker?
As President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol is likely to work at the Office of the Presidential Transition Committee in Toongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul for a while following taking office, interest in establishing a crisis management system in case of emergency is high. The fact that the use of the Ministry of National Defense’s underground bunker, which is far from the office, has practical limitations, and that the use of the existing Blue House bunker is in the form of overturning its promises, the elected party’s concerns are increasing.
On the 23rd, spokesperson Kim Eun-hye of the elected President-elect Kim Eun-hye said, “Whether it is the bunker of the Blue House, the bunker of the Ministry of National Defense, or the bunker under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it is the part that President-elect Yoon can choose. did. Until the day before, Yoon-elect showed a somewhat flexible attitude from asserting that “The Ministry of National Defense’s bunker is used even during the period of using the Tongui-dong office. It is ‘zero’ to use the Blue House space.
President-elect Yoon’s will to ‘I will not enter the Blue House even for a single day’ is strong. However, he ran into a wall that it was not realistically easy to move from the office to the bunker of the Ministry of National Defense in case of emergency. It takes two or three minutes by car to get to the Blue House from the Tongui-dong office, while it takes 17 minutes during normal hours to reach the Yongsan Ministry of National Defense Building, which is regarding 5.3 km away, and takes more than 10 minutes even if traffic signals are controlled. In the event of a crisis, the process of directly reporting the situation to the president and instructing the response will inevitably be delayed.
It’s not just a matter of time. It is also pointed out that the function of the bunker itself of the Ministry of National Defense is insufficient compared to the Blue House. The Blue House National Crisis Management Center is closely connected with domestic and foreign government agencies and facilities, as well as wired and wireless command and communication networks, so it can respond to various disasters and disasters as well as security situations. On the other hand, the Ministry of National Defense Command and Control Center focuses on military operations, so facilities need to be supplemented, such as adding servers and connections, but it is unknown how long it will take to install and stabilize the system. A person from the People’s Power who has worked at the Blue House also said, “In the early days of taking office, you have no choice but to use the Blue House. It is not an option.”
The fact that North Korea has raised the level of provocations before and following the inauguration of the new regime is also aggravating anxiety. A security crisis can occur as many as two or three months following President-elect Yoon takes office and uses his office in Tongui-dong. North Korea conducted its third nuclear test just before the inauguration of former President Park Geun-hye in February 2013, and in 2017, when President Moon Jae-in took office, declared “complete nuclear force” following the sixth nuclear test. North Korea has fired ballistic missiles 10 times this year as well, and continued armed protests by firing multiple rocket launchers on the 20th.
Kang Yubin reporter [email protected]
