A Seoul court ordered Pyongyang on Wednesday 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, according to media reports.
South Korea’s previous conservative government, led by former president Yoon Suk-yeol, filed the suit in June 2023, before Yoon was ousted from office after his short-lived December 2024 martial law declaration.
The office building was constructed in the dormant Kaesong Industrial Complex, where South Korean companies once employed North Korean workers.