Prosecutors in Seoul have launched an investigation into Kim Jong Un’s sister about Pyongyang’s move to blow up a liaison office last month, authorities said Thursday.
Prosecutors in the Seoul Central District received a criminal complaint against Kim Yo Jong from a Seoul-based lawyer and began the investigation, a spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse.
The news is likely to enrage North Korea, which has repeatedly condemned the South in recent months, including directing personal insults at President Moon Jae-in.
Pyongyang blew up a joint liaison office on its side of the border last month shortly after Kim Yo Jong, one of his brother’s closest advisers, warned that the “useless” property would soon “completely collapse.”
The demolition of the office was ordered by Kim Jong Un, who was reportedly furious at his wife’s “dirty and insulting” depictions in a leaflet campaign against Pyongyang launched by defectors in South Korea.
Lee Kyung-jae, the lawyer who filed the complaint, said the liaison office was owned by South Korea because it was renovated using funds from the South government, despite being located in North Korea.
Kim “used explosives to destroy” the “southern quasi-diplomatic mission building that served the public interest,” the complaint said.
Lee also filed the complaint against Pak Jong Chon, chief of staff of the North Korean Army.
The lawyer said that damaging property or disturbing the peace with explosives is punishable by a prison sentence of at least seven years, or death, according to South Korea’s criminal code.
.
