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President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speak while heading toward the Blue House’s Sangchunjae guest home for their meeting on March 28. On the far left is Chang Je-won, Yoon’s chief of staff, and on the far right is Yoo Young-min, Moon’s chief of staff. (Yonhap News)

President Moon Jae-in said during his dinner meeting with President-elect Yoon on Monday that he will cooperate with Yoon’s plan to relocate the presidential office, Yoon’s camp shared. During their first meeting since the election, Moon and Yoon agreed to continue to discuss matters such as drawing up a revised supplementary budget to support small business owners, as well as the matter of appointing new personnel, which has stirred conflict between the two sides.

After the dinner meeting, Yoon’s chief of staff, Chang Je-won, held a briefing at the presidential transition committee’s office in the Tongui neighborhood of Seoul, where he said, “The matter of relocating the presidential office to Yongsan came up naturally [during the meeting].”

Chang continued, “President-elect Yoon talked about how ‘ending the Blue House era and opening an age of being together with the public’ was a goal as early as during the Kim Young-sam administration, but how [the presidential office] has remained in place due to realistic difficulties,” adding that Yoon told Moon that he “really wanted to [realize the goal] this time.”

Chang said that in response, Moon said that he “believes deciding on the matter of relocating the presidential office is the duty of the incoming administration,” and that “the current administration will cooperate by closely examining the budget for the precise relocation plan.”

When asked whether Yoon and Moon discussed if the relocation budget would be submitted to the Cabinet, Chang said that “[Moon] didn’t discuss the specifics of the procedure.”

“The understanding from my standpoint is that the president will cooperate as we share working-level details with each other such as timing and the specifics of the relocation,” Chang noted.

On the matter of drawing up a revised supplementary budget to compensate the public for damages caused by COVID-19, Chang said Moon and Yoon agreed that it was necessary. Chang said, “the two agreed and shared their views that specifics should be coordinated on the working level.”

“President Moon said that he has had a hectic presidency, but that now, his homework is to manage the COVID-19 situation well during his last days in office so that he can hand over power without issue. He said he would do his best to manage [the situation] and hand over the administration,” Chang stated.

The matter of granting a special pardon to former President Lee Myung-bak, which had been drawing interest, was not discussed during the meeting, Chang shared. Moreover, regarding the matter of appointing new personnel, which stirred tensions between Moon’s and Yoon’s camps, Chang said, “We decided to continue to discuss the matter with Blue House Senior Secretary Lee Cheol-hee on the working level.”

Moon and Yoon also shared their views on the current security situation, including North Korea’s recent test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Chang explained, “President Moon and the president-elect agreed to do their best to confer on matters related to national security so that there may be no gaps during the administrative handover process.”

Also in attendance at Monday’s meeting were Yoo Young-min, Moon’s chief of staff, and Chang. During previous meetings between the president and the president-elect, co-attendees would sometimes briefly vacate the meeting so that the president and president-elect could talk privately; but this time, Chang explained, the chiefs of staff of the president and the president-elect both attended the full 2 hours and 36 minutes of the meeting.

By Oh Yeon Seo, staff reporter; Lee Wan, staff reporter; Kim Hae-jeong, staff reporter

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