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Gov't to build branch presidential office in Sejong, complete it within Lee's term

Published: 14 Apr. 2026, 18:31 Updated: 14 Apr. 2026, 20:17

SARAH KIM
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Lee Kyu-yeon, senior presidential secretary for public relations, shows a plan during a press briefing announcing the bid to develop a site for a presidential branch office in the administrative city of Sejong at the Blue House in central Seoul on April 14. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Blue House announced Tuesday it will begin construction of a branch presidential office in the administrative city of Sejong, aiming to complete the project within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term.

Lee Kyu-yeon, senior secretary for public relations, said in a press briefing that the bid will open on Wednesday for the construction of the office at a 350,000-square-meter (3.77-million-square-feet) site in Sejong. The 9.8 billion won ($6.65 million) construction project is expected to take 14 months to complete.

"President Lee has repeatedly expressed his intention to hold his farewell ceremony in Sejong," senior secretary Lee told reporters at the Blue House in central Seoul, noting the president has instructed officials to expedite the project proceeds without delay, in keeping with a campaign pledge.

"This construction project holds symbolic and significant meaning for balanced national growth," he said. "This is because it marks the first action, the first construction and first breaking ground, rather than leaving the promise made to the people to complete the administrative capital merely as a plan on paper or a political slogan."

President Lee, who took office in June 2025, moved the presidential office from the Yongsan compound, where the Defense Ministry is also located, back to the Blue House complex last December. His predecessor, ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, moved the presidential office from the Blue House to the Defense Ministry at the beginning of his term in May 2022.

A design competition for the Sejong branch office is also underway, and the winning entry is slated to be announced at the end of this month.

Construction is expected to begin in August next year, if preparations go smoothly.

The Sejong-based National Agency for Administrative City Construction set August 2029 as the target date to move into the Sejong office in a January report.

As a candidate, President Lee pledged to eventually move the presidential office to Sejong, a planned city in the Chungcheong region that hosts dozens of state administrative agencies, to address the overconcentration of resources and people in Seoul.

However, the Blue House has indicated that completely relocating the presidential office to Sejong requires further discussion, as moving the administrative capital and the presidential office is linked to discussions on constitutional amendment.

In 2004, the Constitutional Court ruled the "Special Measures Act for the Construction of a New Administrative Capital" unconstitutional, citing the customary constitutional principle that Seoul is Korea's capital.

President Lee, during his presidential campaign last year, pledged to "pursue the complete relocation of the main National Assembly and the presidential office to Sejong following social consensus."

However, in a town hall meeting in Chungcheong in July last year, he admitted, "Completely relocating the presidential office to Sejong is not easy as it involves a constitutional amendment."

But he added that building a presidential branch office and the National Assembly building in Sejong are possible, promising to "expedite" the process.

"We are preparing to primarily use the Sejong office, but moving the Blue House requires a national consensus," senior secretary Lee said. "Some suggest that a legislative process is also necessary."

"This is a very important first step toward achieving an administrative capital" in Sejong, he added.

When asked whether the Sejong office would replace the Blue House as the primary presidential office, senior secretary Lee said, "We are primarily preparing to use it as an office, but moving the Blue House and downgrading its functions requires a national consensus."

He noted that "some argue that a legislative process is also necessary, so it is difficult to comment on the matter at this time."

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]