By Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim
SEOUL, Sept 16 (Reuters) – A Seoul court on Wednesday ordered North Korea to pay 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) in damages over its 2020 demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office, South Korean media reported, marking the first ruling in a lawsuit brought by South Korea against Pyongyang.
South Korea’s previous conservative government, led by former President Yoon Suk Yeol, filed the suit in June 2023. Yoon was later ousted from office after his short-lived December 2024 martial law declaration.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favour of the South Korean government, ordering Pyongyang to pay the full 44.6 billion won sought by Seoul for the demolition of the building in the border town of Kaesong in 2020, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The court also ordered North Korea to bear the litigation costs, media reports said.
The court and North Korea’s embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it respected the court’s ruling and would review necessary follow-up measures.
The ministry also said it hoped inter-Korean dialogue would resume so that issues between the Koreas could be resolved through cooperation.
The government said at the time that North Korea’s demolition of the liaison office was “clearly illegal under the law” and that the lawsuit was filed in 2023 to suspend the statute of limitations on the damages claim, which was due to expire that year.
North Korea blew up the liaison office building in the Kaesong industrial complex on June 16, 2020, citing the scattering of propaganda leaflets across the border by a group of North Korean defectors.
Immediately after the blast, the South Korean government said responsibility for all consequences arising from it lay entirely with the North.
The Kaesong liaison office had been set up under the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration to serve as a round-the-clock communication and consultation channel between the two Koreas.
Seoul calculated the damages at 44.7 billion won, including compensation for the liaison office building and for a nearby inter-Korean economic cooperation support centre that was damaged and rendered unusable by the blast.
Even if South Korea prevailed, Pyongyang was unlikely to respond to the suit and Seoul currently had no means to force North Korea to pay any damages awarded, according to media reports.
The ruling comes amid heightened tensions between the Koreas despite efforts by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to improve ties since taking office last year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has rebuffed those efforts, abandoning Pyongyang’s reunification policy and describing South Korea as its most hostile state.
($1= 1370.9 won)
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok ShimEditing by Ed Davies)
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