[Anchor]

While the government has been pushing to relocate public institutions to provincial regions to promote balanced national development, it has been confirmed that one public institution is preparing to move into Yongsan Park in Seoul. It has also drafted a plan to divert research and development reserves to cover office relocation costs.

Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

This is the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration site located inside Yongsan Park in Seoul.

Located in the northern part of the park, this location was mentioned by the government last month as one of the candidate sites for new housing supply, including rental housing for young people.

[Kim Yoon-duck / Then Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Last month, plenary meeting of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee) : "There is the former DAPA site, and there are some areas that have already completely lost their function as green spaces."]

However, it has been confirmed that the Defense Rapid Acquisition Technology Research Institute, an affiliated agency of the Agency for Defense Development currently based in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, is pursuing a relocation to a building on this former DAPA site.

The somewhat aged building behind me was previously used as office space by the Defense Media Agency.

The research institute plans to set up its new office in that building.

According to internal documents obtained by SBS, the institute budgeted 1.88 billion won for building remodeling and infrastructure setup to facilitate the office relocation.

Of that amount, it was also revealed that the agency plans to cover 1.22 billion won using the Agency for Defense Development's research and development reserve funds.

While the government is promoting a "second round of public institution relocations" and reviewing Yongsan Park as a candidate site for housing supply, the institute appears to be defying the provincial relocation policy by moving into Yongsan Park instead.

Criticism is mounting over whether this constitutes an attempt to "dig in" and remain in Seoul.

[Boo Seung-chan / Member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee (Democratic Party of Korea) : "There could not be a worse mismatch; this simply should not happen. Especially amid a housing supply drought, they should approach these matters with prudence and actively align with government policy."]

The research institute told SBS that "the relocation discussions have been held in consultation with relevant organizations such as the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, so there is no issue."

However, critics point out that government-level scrutiny is needed to assess whether the move aligns with the principle of relocating public institutions to the provinces, as well as the broader plan for utilizing the Yongsan Park site.

(Video by Lee Byung-joo, Oh Young-chun, Lee Seung-hwan, Kim Yong-woo | Video editing by Lee So-young | Graphics by Kim Ye-ji, Hwang Se-yeon)