SEOUL, South Korea – After North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its own territory last month, plunging relations with South Korea at a diplomatic low, a conservative activist lawyer in the South decided that a person was responsible: Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
He then filed a lawsuit against Ms. Kim.
South Korean prosecutors said Friday they were investigating the litigation, but it was unclear whether they would start a formal investigation. Their hands appeared to be tied: they have virtually no way to summon Mr. Kim’s sister to court to face the charge.
The lawsuit is largely symbolic, but if it triggers an angry reaction from the North, it could lead to further deterioration of the relationship between the two Koreas.
Activist lawyer Lee Kyung-jae, a vocal critic of Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, told reporters last week that he had been forced to file the lawsuit in part because Mr. Moon’s government had not been aggressive. Enough to deal with the destruction of the northern liaison office.
Inter-Korean relations were warmer in 2018, when Kim held summit meetings with President Moon, who helped organize meetings between Kim and President Trump. But ties were frozen once Kim’s second meeting with Trump, held in Vietnam in February 2019, collapsed.
Tension increased between the two Koreas as Kim became North Korea’s tough face and voice. After activists in the South sent anti-North Korean brochures across the border to the North, she issued a series of statements threatening retaliation, including the destruction of the liaison office.
The North Korean army blew up the office last month, which is located in the border city of Kaesong, North Korea. But his brother later suspended any other military action aimed at reducing the relatively warm relationship that had developed between the two Koreas in recent years.
Last week, Mr. Lee filed the lawsuit asking prosecutors to indict Ms. Kim, along with Pak Jong-chon, the chief of staff of the North Korean Army, on charges of destroying a building constructed with South Korean taxpayer money.
A legal complaint in South Korea is usually assigned to a prosecutor to decide whether it deserves a full investigation. Prosecutors generally suspend attempts to charge criminal suspects when they cannot be brought to court. Even Mr. Lee acknowledged that there was no way for prosecutors to present Ms. Kim in court in the South.
The lawsuit against Kim comes immediately after a landmark ruling this month in a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of two South Korean prisoners of war from the 1950-53 Korean War. With the help of conservative lawyers, the men, who spent decades in the north before escaping to the south, won their case when a Seoul court ordered Kim Jong-un and North Korea to compensate them for the forced labor they suffered while they were in the north.
Under the South Korean Constitution, North Korea and its people are technically part of South Korea. And in South Korea, civil trials can be tried without the accused in court. The ruling in the prisoner of war case was also largely symbolic because there was no way that South Korea could compel Mr. Kim and North Korea to pay compensation.
Still, he encouraged politically active conservative lawyers to file or consider other lawsuits against North Korea over a number of issues, such as widespread abuse of human rights.
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to file criminal charges against Ms. Kim. But given past practices, they will most likely drop the case after studying the complaint.
In the past, activists have sued top North Korean leaders, such as Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, for incidents such as the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in 2010. But prosecutors did not charge anyone.
