Feng shui expert inspected presidential residence candidate site before relocation: report

Feng shui expert Paik Jae-kwon (left) and fortuneteller Cheongong (Sourced from their individual YouTube channels)

Police investigating allegations that a fortuneteller, Cheongong, interfered in selecting the location of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official residence said that the man who visited a candidate site early last year was a different person with a similar beard, according to KBS reports last week.

A former Justice Party lawmaker first raised the allegation last December that Cheongong, who claimed to be a personal mentor to Yoon, paid a visit to the official residence of the Army Chief of Staff in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, to assess it as the new presidential residence.

The official residence of the Foreign Minister, also in Yongsan-gu, was eventually chosen as Yoon's residence. Cheong Wa Dae in Jongno-gu was the presidential office and residence of Yoon's predecessors.

Boo Seung-chan, a former Defense Ministry spokesperson, then made the same speculation in his memoir.

News Tomato and Hankook Ilbo initially reported the ex-spokesman’s claim, and a police investigation was launched as the presidential office filed a complaint with the police against the two reporters of the media outlets for libel in February.

Police looked into security camera footage from the official residence of the Army Chief of Staff on April 10, when the news reports said Cheongong visited, but did not find traces of him there.

Instead, they found that Paik Jae-kwon, a bearded feng shui expert and adjunct professor at Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, had visited the Army Chief of Staff’s residence on the day in question.

According to a news report from local broadcaster KBS, police obtained statements from military officials who worked at the Army Chief of Staff’s official residence at the time that Paik had visited the place. Police, however, did not interrogate Paik.

Another broadcaster, YTN, reported that Paik is known to have interfered in the presidential transition team’s work to relocate the presidential office.