Seoul Court Orders North Korea to Pay $32.5 Million Over 2020 Liaison Office Bombing

A South Korean court has ordered North Korea to pay 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) in damages for destroying a joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong in 2020, a ruling issued Wednesday by the Seoul Central District Court.

The verdict carries mostly symbolic weight. South Korea has no practical mechanism to force Pyongyang to pay, given the near-total breakdown in relations between the two governments.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has spent recent years cutting off meaningful diplomacy with Seoul, labeling it his most hostile enemy, while accelerating his nuclear weapons program and deepening ties with Moscow and Beijing under what he has called a “new Cold War.”

This marks the first time South Korea’s government itself has sued Pyongyang, though individuals have previously brought cases against the North Korean government over human rights abuses and other grievances.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, said it respects the ruling and renewed its call for talks to resume, saying it hopes “all issues between the South and North can be resolved through dialogue and cooperation.” North Korean state media had not responded to the ruling as of publication.

The Case and the Blast

Seoul filed the lawsuit in 2023, arguing that North Korea’s detonation of the building was an unlawful and violent act that violated prior agreements between the two countries and severely damaged “mutual respect and trust.”

At the time the suit was filed, South Korea was governed by a conservative administration that took a hard line on North Korea’s weapons programs and its military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while deepening security cooperation with the United States and Japan.

South Korea’s posture has since softened under current President Lee Jae Myung, a liberal who took office last year after his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, was removed from power over a brief martial law declaration in December 2024. North Korea has not responded to Lee’s overtures for renewed dialogue.

The liaison office itself, built by South Korea in Kaesong, was destroyed with explosives in June 2020 after North Korea accused Seoul of failing to stop defectors from floating anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border by balloon. North Korea had already shut the office down in January 2020 over coronavirus concerns, leaving the building empty when it was blown up. The destruction was widely viewed as a calculated show of anger meant to pressure Seoul amid stalled nuclear talks with Washington.

A Broader Diplomatic Freeze

The origins of that breakdown trace back to 2018 and 2019, when then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Kim three times and helped arrange Kim’s first summit with President Donald Trump. That diplomacy collapsed after a second Kim-Trump summit in 2019, when the United States rejected North Korea’s demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for only partial denuclearization.

Since then, Kim has expanded his nuclear and missile arsenal while strengthening ties with Russia, sending thousands of troops and large amounts of weaponry to support President Vladimir Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.

Trump, now in his second term, has signaled interest in reviving contact with Kim and last month ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” a major joint military exercise with South Korea, citing a “good relationship” with the North Korean leader. Kim’s government, however, has dismissed Trump’s overtures and insisted Washington drop denuclearization as a precondition for any new talks.