SEOUL: A Seoul court ordered Pyongyang on Wednesday (Sept 16) to pay roughly US$32.5 million for blowing up in 2020 an office in North Korea that was intended to foster relations between the two Koreas, Yonhap news agency reported.
The lawsuit over the destruction of the Inter-Korean Liaison Office marks the first time the South Korean government has sought damages directly from the North Korean state, media reports said.
The office building was constructed in the dormant Kaesong Industrial Complex, where South Korean companies once employed North Korean workers.
But Pyongyang blew up the building in June 2020 after days of rising tensions due to activists in the South sending balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, with the North denouncing the office as "useless".
"The North should pay the South Korean government 44.6 billion won in damages over the demolition of the liaison office," the Seoul Central District Court said in its ruling, Yonhap reported.
The office opened in September 2018, days before then South Korean president Moon Jae-in travelled to Pyongyang for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Around 20 officials from each side were stationed at the office in the following months until operations were suspended in January 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. - AFP
