Seoul court orders North Korea to pay $32.5m for blowing up office
Pyongyang blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office building in June 2020 after days of rising tensions.
A court in Seoul has ordered Pyongyang to pay roughly $32.5m for blowing up an office in North Korea in 2020 that was intended to foster better relations between the two neighbours.
“The court has ruled the North should pay the South Korean government 44.6 billion won in damages,” a spokeswoman for the Seoul Central District Court told the AFP news agency on Wednesday.
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.
South Korea said it would “review the necessary follow-up measures”, though experts consider it unlikely that Pyongyang would ever pay damages over the demolition of the building in the North Korean city of Kaesong.