Defense Ministry to return to old headquarters after 4 years

The Ministry of National Defense is set to return to its former headquarters — the building it vacated for the presidential office under Yoon Suk Yeol — after roughly four years and three months. The ministry began moving departments Tuesday and will complete the relocation on Aug. 14, when the minister's office is transferred.

The ministry's regular spokesperson briefing, held Monday at the current headquarters, was the last to take place there. Briefings will be suspended for now until the move is complete, according to the government.

"We came to this building about four years and three months ago, and now we are returning to where we were," spokesperson Jeong Bit-na said at the Monday briefing. "We will work to communicate more closely with the press from the new building and carry out our duties more efficiently in the new space."

The building the ministry is moving into is the 10-story structure that served as President Yoon's Yongsan executive office.

The Defense Ministry had used the building as its headquarters since 2003, but gave it up in May 2022 when the Yoon administration relocated the presidential office to Yongsan. The ministry then moved across the street to the Joint Chiefs of Staff building, sharing the compound with the JCS for more than four years.

President Lee Jae Myung fulfilled his campaign pledge to relocate the presidential office by moving the executive office back to Cheong Wa Dae in December last year, about six months after taking office. The Yongsan building sat vacant for roughly half a year after that. Speculation circulated in government circles that another ministry might move in, but the building was ultimately returned to its original occupant.

The Defense Ministry has largely completed interior renovation work to convert the former presidential office back into a ministry headquarters.

Some auxiliary facilities that drew controversy during Yoon's presidency — including a cypress-wood sauna room — were demolished during the renovation.

Once the move is finished, the Defense Ministry and the JCS will each occupy separate, independent buildings as they did before May 2022. Departments that had been dispersed inside and outside the compound due to space constraints will also return to the ministry's dedicated building.

The relocation budget of 20.58 billion won ($14 million) was approved at a Cabinet meeting last April as a general contingency reserve. The breakdown includes 12.4 billion won for network, PC and conference-room video equipment; 6.2 billion won for facility renovation; and 2 billion won for moving costs.