Government's first-ever lawsuit against North Korea

Court rules entirely in Seoul's favor, ordering 44.6 billion won in damages

Actual payment seen as impossible

The inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong, photographed on Sept. 12, 2018. [Yonhap]
The inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong, photographed on Sept. 12, 2018. [Yonhap]

A Seoul court has ordered North Korea to pay South Korea 44.6 billion won ($33 million) in damages for the 2020 demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office — the first lawsuit the South Korean government has ever filed against Pyongyang.

Civil Division 46 of the Seoul Central District Court ruled Wednesday entirely in favor of the plaintiff, the Republic of Korea, against the defendant, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The court ordered North Korea to pay 44.63 billion won, plus interest at an annual rate of 5 percent from June 16, 2020, through June 7, 2025, and at 12 percent per year thereafter until the full amount is settled. The court also ordered North Korea to bear the litigation costs.

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration filed the lawsuit in June 2023, seeking about 44.7 billion won in compensation for North Korea's demolition of the liaison office. The claim combined damages to the liaison office building and the Kaesong Industrial Complex's general support center.

The government calculated its losses at 10.25 billion won for the liaison office building itself and 34.45 billion won for the adjacent general support center, which was also destroyed in the blast, for a combined total of about 44.7 billion won.

Proceedings had been effectively stalled for years because serving legal documents on North Korea proved nearly impossible. The government applied for constructive service in December 2024, and after the court accepted the application, the first hearing was held in April 2025. Constructive service is a legal mechanism that treats documents as delivered by posting their contents online when direct delivery to a party is not possible.

At that first hearing, the court asked the government to submit additional materials on the scope of damages, noting it was difficult to conclude that renovation costs had necessarily increased the buildings' value.

The inter-Korean liaison office was established at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in September 2018 under the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration signed by then-President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and was widely regarded as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. North Korea demolished it in June 2020, citing leaflet campaigns conducted by South Korean civic groups.

The ruling had originally been scheduled for Aug. 12 but was postponed once after the Ministry of Unification requested a delay, saying it needed time to review follow-up measures. The sentencing proceeded Wednesday.

Despite the court victory, however, there is no prospect of North Korea actually paying the damages.

Collecting from Pyongyang is realistically impossible: North Korean officials are unlikely to participate in any legal proceedings, and North Korea holds no assets in South Korea that could be seized to recover the award.


notstrong@heraldcorp.com