Seoul files lawsuit to recoup inter-Korean liaison office damages

The South Korean government sued North Korea on Wednesday on charges of blowing up the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office three years ago, demanding the regime pay nearly 45 billion won ($35.2 million) in compensation for damages.

The Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, before Pyongyang blew it up [YONHAP]

The South Korean government sued North Korea on Wednesday on charges of blowing up the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office three years ago, demanding the regime pay nearly 45 billion won ($35.2 million) in compensation for damages.

Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, which oversees inter-Korean ties, announced that it filed the lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, a day before the three-year statute of limitations for the claim was due to expire.

In the lawsuit, the ministry explained the plaintiff is the South Korean government and the defendant is the North Korean government.

It is the first time the South Korean government filed a lawsuit against the North Korean government in a judicial institution.

Seoul is seeking a total of 44.7 billion won in damages to state-owned properties — 10.25 billion won for the inter-Korean liaison office building and an additional 34.45 billion won from the adjacent comprehensive support center.

Pyongyang demolished the liaison office, located in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, on June 16, 2020, in response to Seoul’s inability to prevent activists from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the inter-Korean border.

Before and after the demolition of the liaison office, revealed by the North’s state Korean Central News Agency [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol has adopted a more hawkish North Korea policy ever since he assumed office in May 2022.

“The violent demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office by North Korea constitutes a clear violation of the law,” the Unification Ministry said in a statement, calling it a breach of the Panmunjom Declaration on Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula, adopted between former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in September 2018 during a historic summit.

In the declaration, both sides agreed to establish a joint liaison office with resident representatives of both countries “to ensure close consultation between the authorities and to satisfactorily facilitate civil exchanges and cooperation.”

The destruction of the office, the ministry continued, “undermined the fundamental basis of mutual respect and trust between the two Koreas.”

Going forward, the ministry said it would “firmly respond” to North Korea’s infringements of the property rights of the South Korean government and its people while pursuing a "principled” reunification and North Korea policy.

Pyongyang did not immediately react to the lawsuit on Wednesday.

If Pyongyang chooses not to respond to the lawsuit, legal experts say there is a high chance the South Korean government would win the case. But even if that happened, there are currently no means to enforce Pyongyang to cough up the compensation.

The liaison office opened on Sept. 14, 2018, fashioned out of a four-story building that was established in 2007 and named the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Consultation Office.

The Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Consultation Office was used for inter-Korean events before it was closed in 2010 amid escalating tensions between the Koreas following North Korea’s sinking of the South’s Cheonan warship.

When the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office opened, numerous working-level South-North discussions were held during the Moon administration’s short-lived rapprochement with Pyongyang.

Three days before the North blew up the office, Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, publicly warned that Seoul would soon witness the collapse of the “useless” office.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]