{"id":1388896,"date":"2022-03-18T17:16:59","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T21:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388896"},"modified":"2022-03-18T18:30:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T22:30:04","slug":"south-korea-left-accuses-president-elect-of-feng-shui-obsession-for-not-living-in-presidential-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-korea-left-accuses-president-elect-of-feng-shui-obsession-for-not-living-in-presidential-house\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea: Left Accuses President-Elect of Feng Shui Obsession for Not Living in Presidential House"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsouth-korea-left-accuses-president-elect-of-feng-shui-obsession-for-not-living-in-presidential-house%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388896&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\"><span>South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, narrow winner of the March 9 election, dispatched his transition team on Friday to scout two possible locations for his office and residence outside of Cheong Wa Dae, the \u201cBlue House\u201d where the president of the Republic of Korea traditionally resides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Opposition politicians accused Yoon of wastefully seeking an alternative residence because he has developed an obsessive interest in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespruce.com\/what-is-feng-shui-1275060\"><span>feng shui<\/span><\/a><span>, the Chinese art of improving life energy by carefully arranging furniture and architecture.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Yoon\u2019s official reason for seeking alternate office and living space is that he wants his administration to be more accessible to the South Korean public. His transition team described the isolated Blue House as a rather poorly-designed \u201croyal palace\u201d that has not been remodeled in 50 years and is therefore ill-suited for modern business practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe are looking to move out of the Blue House, which had been a symbol of absolute power in our history, and return that power to the people,\u201d Kim Eun-hye <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/good-move-skorean-presidents-home-stirs-feng-shui-furore-2022-03-18\/\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Blue House has been the seat of the South Korean government \u2013 not always a democratically-elected chief executive \u2013 since the Korean War. Before that, it was the headquarters of the Japanese imperial occupation.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Cheong Wa Dae is notoriously inaccessible, excessively large, inconveniently laid out, and perhaps a bit ostentatious \u2013 far more reminiscent of the imperial palace it used to be than the chief office of a modern republic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The overall history of the complex is so unhappy that feng shui practitioners believe the Blue House is cursed \u2013 or \u201ccrisscrossed by unfavorable flows of natural energy, or chi, that bring bad luck and ill health to the people living there,\u201d as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3170955\/bad-feng-shui-south-korean-president-elect-yoon-suk-yeol-seeks\"><i><span>South China Morning Post<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span>(SCMP) put it on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The outgoing president, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-southkorea-election-moon-bluehouse\/moons-aim-to-move-south-korean-presidential-office-a-security-headache-idUSKBN18615D\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> he would move out of the Blue House soon after his election in 2017.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI will leave the Blue House and begin the age of a \u2018Gwanghwamun president\u2019 as soon as preparations are done,\u201d Moon said in his very first presidential speech, referring to a historic district in Seoul where many embassies and corporate headquarters are located.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The venue also appealed to Moon because it was the scene of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-38114558\"><span>demonstrations<\/span><\/a><span> against his predecessor Park Geun-hye, brought down by corruption and abuse-of-power scandals. Four of South Korea\u2019s last six presidents were either arrested or killed themselves, contributing greatly to the Blue House\u2019s reputation as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0078767\/\"><span>Amityville Horror<\/span><\/a><span> of national executive offices.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Moon eventually abandoned his relocation plan as too expensive and logistically difficult and his party now accuses Yoon of planning to waste up to $822 million on an unnecessary relocation guided by feng shui mysticism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/good-move-skorean-presidents-home-stirs-feng-shui-furore-2022-03-18\/\"><span>Reuters<\/span><\/a><span> on Friday noted the DPK claims Yoon fell under the influence of a feng shui \u201cshaman\u201d during the campaign, a man Yoon said was merely a Buddhist priest of his acquaintance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>South Korea\u2019s feng shui community is outspokenly critical of the Blue House and excited about one of the alternatives Yoon is exploring, a Defense Ministry complex in the Yongsan district of Seoul. Yoon\u2019s team also visited the Gwanghwamun area favored by Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cYongsan is a blessed spot, open and surrounded by gentle mountains. It\u2019s an incomparably humble yet auspicious piece of land compared to the Blue House location,\u201d gushed Jee Jong-hag, head of a feng shui society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>DPK politicians shot back that Yongsan has a \u201cshameful history\u201d as the headquarters of \u201coccupation forces,\u201d by which they probably mean the Japanese, although the U.S. Army had a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/d85519e00e5042739e0fde2fdb295bc8\"><span>garrison<\/span><\/a><span> there as well until 2018. The U.S. base boasted a Taco Bell, in addition to whatever advantageous feng shui energy flows it might enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yoon\u2019s transition team <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.arirang.com\/News\/News_View.asp?sys_lang=Eng&#038;nseq=295517\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> on Friday his prospective offices would be modeled on the U.S. White House and would be constructed on the grounds of the former American military base, which is being renovated into a public park.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, narrow winner of the March 9 election, dispatched his transition team on Friday to scout two possible locations for his office and residence outside of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}