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Seoul demands that North halt liaison office demolition

Published: 08 Dec. 2023, 16:09

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

The destruction of the inter-Korean liaison office on June 16, 2020 is seen in this footage that the North's state-controlled Korean Central Television released the follow day. [YONHAP]

Seoul demanded on Friday that Pyongyang cease ongoing demolition work to remove the ruins of the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Kaesong that the North blew up in June 2020.

Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byung-sam said the North’s actions constituted “a continuous violation of [the South’s] property rights” and urged a halt to the demolition of the destroyed building.

Pyongyang blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong on June 16, 2020, to demonstrate its displeasure with anti-North activists’ launching of balloons laden with anti-regime materials across the demilitarized zone.

Seoul files lawsuit to recoup inter-Korean liaison office damages

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

The liaison office opened on Sept. 14, 2018, in a four-story building that South Korea built in 2007.

Numerous working-level inter-Korean discussions were held at the building during the previous Moon Jae-in administration’s short-lived rapprochement with Pyongyang.

In June, the Unification Ministry sued Pyongyang for damages totaling 45 billion won ($35.2 million) in compensation for costs incurred by the North’s destruction of the building.

According to Koo, the North has been removing the remnants of the building since November.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]