South Korea court imposes $32.5m penalty on North Korea; will Pyongyang ever pay?

A South Korean court on Wednesday directed North Korea to pay $32.5 million to Seoul for blowing up a joint liaison office in 2020 after relations between the two countries further deteriorated following the collapse of nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.South Korea filed the suit in 2023, describing the North's detonation of the building in the North Korean border town of Kaesong as an unlawful and violent act that breached previous agreements between the countries and severely damaged “mutual respect and trust.”While there have been cases of individuals suing the North Korean government over human rights abuses and other issues, the liaison office case was the first time the South Korean government sued Pyongyang.The ruling by the Seoul central district court was, however, symbolic as South Korea has no clear way to force Pyongyang to pay amid a diplomatic breakdown.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent years has suspended all meaningful diplomacy with the South and declared it his most hostile enemy while advancing his nuclear weapons program and pursuing closer ties with Moscow and Beijing as part of what he has described as a “new Cold War.”South Korea's unification ministry, which handles affairs related to North Korea, said it respects the court's ruling and called for a resumption of inter-Korean diplomacy so that “all issues between the South and North can be resolved through dialogue and cooperation.”However, North Korean state media didn't immediately comment on the ruling.In June 2020, North Korea demolished the South Korean-built liaison office in Kaesong with explosives after accusing Seoul of failing to prevent North Korean defectors from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border by balloon.Pyongyang had already shut the office in January that year as it sealed its borders over coronavirus concerns, leaving the building empty when it was destroyed.The demolition was seen as a calculated show of anger aimed at pressuring Seoul amid stalled nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States.Former liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in held three meetings with Kim Jong Un in 2018 and helped pave the way for Kim's first summit with then-US President Donald Trump in June that year.The diplomacy, however, collapsed after the second Kim-Trump summit in 2019, when the US rejected Pyongyang's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial dismantling of its nuclear capabilities.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.