![The nameplate of the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy hangs at Government Complex Sejong. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/17/news-p.v1.20251023.97de36ab45bf4960b11ab22cb3bdd5f6_P1.png)
Nearly a year after the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy was created under the Lee Jae-myung government's reorganization plan — absorbing the energy portfolio from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy — the ministry is set to finally operate under a single roof next month.
The move will fully resolve what officials have described as an awkward cohabitation: the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy had been left sharing a building with the energy bureau even after the two functions were formally separated.
According to government sources in Sejong on Monday, the energy bureau — which had belonged to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy before the reorganization — is scheduled to relocate to Building 6 of Government Complex Sejong in the third week of next month. The bureau had been housed in Building 13, where the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is located, and will now move to Building 6, where the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy is based.
One variable, however, is the planned relocation of the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency. The agency is set to move into space in the central building vacated by the Ministry of Planning and Budget, which itself relocated to Building 5, the former home of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
Despite being part of the same ministry for nearly a year, roughly 150 staff members have had to walk about 10 minutes between buildings just to hold a meeting — an inefficiency that has drawn persistent criticism. Officials have also warned that the physical distance may be compounding a deeper problem: the slow integration of two fundamentally different work cultures, one focused on environmental regulation and the other on promoting the energy industry.
Even as the ministry physically consolidates — with the former Ministry of Environment now overseeing energy policy, a core area of industrial policy — government insiders say closing the gap between the environment and energy sides in terms of policy direction, pace, workload and performance expectations will be difficult.
Concerns about an invisible barrier between staff from the former Ministry of Environment and those from the former Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy have deepened following the recent death by suicide of a ministry official.
If you're thinking about self-harm or suicide, contact the Ministry of Health and Welfare's helpline 1393, available 24/7. Please request a translator for English-language services.
The incident has prompted discussion about two underlying causes: cultural differences between staff from the two predecessor ministries working together since the new ministry's launch, and chronic understaffing.
Since its launch, the ministry has faced a heavy concentration of major policy challenges — accelerating energy conservation and the energy transition in response to the war in the Middle East, setting national greenhouse gas reduction targets, and drawing up electricity and water supply plans for three large-scale megaprojects. Yet staffing levels have not kept pace, and officials say the workload on desk-level officers has become unsustainable.
Energy staff, who were once part of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, are now severing their last physical tie to that ministry through this relocation — and an invisible turf war is playing out in the process. Competition has emerged, for example, over postings as commercial attachés in major countries and seats at international energy organizations. A Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy division chief beat out a Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy candidate for a commercial attaché post in Washington, D.C., in a competitive selection held in the first half of this year.
"It has taken a year to sort out the awkward cohabitation that resulted from the Lee Jae-myung government separating the old Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and leaving some staff under the same roof," a Sejong government official said. "The ministry's environment, climate and energy functions are now concentrated in one building — but the real challenge is organizational integration."
oskymoon@heraldcorp.com
