Court orders North Korea to compensate Seoul for blowing up liaison office

SEOUL, September 16 (AJP) - The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday ordered North Korea to pay 44.63 billion won (US$33 million) in damages to South Korea for blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office building in the border town of Kaesong in 2020.

The amount covers 10.25 billion won for the cost of the liaison office, which was built with South Korean money, and 34.45 billion for the annexes.

The two Koreas opened the liaison office in September 2018 to facilitate inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges amid a thaw in relations spurred by a series of summits between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea blew up the four-story building on June 16, 2020, just days after warning that the "useless office" should be demolished, criticizing South Korean activists, many of them North Korean defectors, for floating propaganda leaflets across the border.

The ruling came three years and three months after the South Korean government filed the lawsuit in June 2023, just before the three-year statute of limitations for its damages claim was set to expire. It was the first such legal action brought by the government here, and the case proceeded without a North Korean representative.

Despite the court's cut-and-dried ruling on the facts, it would be impossible to enforce unless the North Korean regime collapses, as South Korea currently has no practical means of forcing North Korea to comply with the judgment.

The South Korean government also explained earlier that the purpose of the lawsuit was not to collect compensation immediately, but to prevent the statute of limitations from expiring over North Korea's violation of inter-Korean agreements and its "blatant illegal act which fundamentally undermined the basis of mutual respect and trust" between the two Koreas.
 

AJP Takeaways

- The Seoul Central District Court ordered North Korea to pay 44.63 billion won (US$33 million) in damages to South Korea over the 2020 demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong.

- The damages cover 10.25 billion won for the liaison office and 34.45 billion won for its annexes, which were built with South Korean funds before North Korea demolished the four-story building on June 16, 2020.

- The ruling is unlikely to result in immediate payment, as South Korea currently has no practical means of compelling North Korea to comply with the judgment.