Yongsan District Community Center Partition: Inconvenience for Residents vs. Protection for Public Officials

A resident visiting the Yongsan District Community Center expressed discomfort caused by the acrylic partition set up at the civil service counter. In response, Yongsan District stated that this measure was unavoidable and in accordance with the guidelines from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

On the 20th, according to Yongsan District, a resident named Kim filed a complaint after encountering inconvenience while visiting the community center and the Yongsan District Office for ID and passport reissuance.

Kim stated, "Everywhere I go, there are acrylic partitions, which is very inconvenient," and specifically pointed out that “the biggest issue is that the monitor and partition block the front, making communication difficult.”

Communication Barrier Between Residents and Public Officials

Kim expressed discomfort due to the partition structure, which prevents him from seeing the officials' faces properly, requiring documents to be passed through a small hole, and forcing him to lower his head every time he chats.

He mentioned that “I am not the only one; other residents also have to adopt the same posture,” emphasizing that this inconvenience is a common issue.

Kim also noted, "For public officials who perform the same tasks daily, it might reduce stress, but if communication doesn't happen, that also causes stress."

He remarked, "Every time I visit for necessary tasks, the defensive atmosphere these days is uncomfortable," acknowledging that the setup is a measure to protect officials from COVID-19 and malicious complainants, but suggested that improvements are needed.

Guidelines from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Efforts for Improvement

Regarding this, Yongsan District's Civil Affairs and Passport Division stated that the current partition setup complies with the guidelines from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and asserted that there are no issues with it.

A district official explained, "According to the guidelines for addressing illegal actions by residents and repeated complaints (Ministry of the Interior and Safety guidelines from October 2024), we install partition screens at civil service counters to prevent harm to officials from thrown dangerous materials, thereby ensuring a safe service environment."

While Yongsan District maintains that completely removing the partitions is difficult, it promised to seek improvement measures to alleviate residents' inconveniences.

The district officials stated, "We will be more attentive and make efforts to ensure that there are no communication difficulties due to the civil service counter partitions in future processing."

Image source: News1, Yongsan District Office, unrelated materials / News1