A South Korean court has ordered North Korea to pay 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) in compensation for destroying a joint liaison office between the two Koreas in 2020, when relations sharply deteriorated following the collapse of nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.
The Seoul Central District Court's ruling Wednesday is largely symbolic, as South Korea has no practical means of compelling North Korea to make the payment amid the continuing diplomatic breakdown.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has in recent years halted virtually all meaningful engagement with South Korea and described it as his most hostile adversary. At the same time, he has continued expanding North Korea's nuclear weapons program and strengthened ties with Moscow and Beijing as part of what he calls a "new Cold War."
Although individuals have previously brought lawsuits against the North Korean government over human rights abuses and other matters, the case involving the liaison office marked the first time that the South Korean government itself sued Pyongyang.
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is responsible for inter-Korean affairs, said it respects the court's decision and urged the two sides to resume diplomacy so that "all issues between the South and North can be resolved through dialogue and cooperation."
North Korean state media did not immediately respond to the ruling.
South Korea filed the lawsuit in 2023, arguing that North Korea's demolition of the building in the border city of Kaesong was an unlawful and violent act that violated previous agreements between the two countries and seriously undermined "mutual respect and trust."
At the time, South Korea was under a conservative government that adopted a tougher position toward North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and its military assistance to Russia in the war in Ukraine. Seoul also strengthened security cooperation with the United States and Japan in response to the North Korean threat.
The tone shifted under current liberal President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last year after his conservative predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, was removed following his brief declaration of martial law in December 2024.
North Korea, however, has so far ignored Lee's appeals for a resumption of inter-Korean dialogue.
In June 2020, North Korea used explosives to destroy the South Korean-built liaison office in Kaesong after accusing Seoul of failing to prevent North Korean defectors from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border by balloons.
North Korea had already closed the liaison office in January 2020 as it sealed its borders over concerns about the coronavirus. The building was unoccupied when it was blown up.
The destruction was widely viewed at the time as a deliberate show of anger intended to pressure Seoul over stalled nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.
Former South Korean liberal President Moon Jae-in held three meetings with Kim in 2018 and helped arrange Kim's first summit with then-US President Donald Trump in June of that year.
The diplomatic process collapsed after Kim and Trump held their second summit in 2019, when the United States rejected North Korea's demand for significant sanctions relief in return for partially giving up its nuclear capabilities.
Kim has since accelerated the development of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs while deepening relations with Russia.
North Korea has sent thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
Trump has expressed interest in restarting diplomacy with Kim during his second term. Last month, he also ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" a major military exercise with South Korea, citing what he described as a "good relationship" with Kim.
Kim's government, however, has so far rejected Trump's offers of dialogue and urged Washington to abandon its demand for North Korea's denuclearization as a condition for restarting negotiations.