US and South Korean courts order North Korea and Iran to pay $520 million

Courts in South Korea and the United States have issued major damages judgments against North Korea. A Seoul court ordered Pyongyang to pay 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) for demolishing an inter-Korean liaison office in 2020, in the first lawsuit brought against North Korea by the South Korean government. Separately, a U.S. federal court ordered North Korea and Iran to pay about $487 million to 47 Americans and their families, finding that their support for militant groups contributed to seven attacks between 2019 and 2023, including Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and incidents in Iraq, Syria and Kenya. The rulings are largely symbolic because collecting damages from North Korea is highly unlikely.