South Korea has filed a damages suit against North Korea over its 2020 demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office in the North's border town of Gaeseong.

Seoul's unification ministry said on Wednesday that it filed the lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court seeking 44-point-seven billion won, or nearly 35 million U.S. dollars, in compensation from the North.

The ministry said the suit, which is seeking restitution commensurate with the amount of loss inflicted on South Korean property, was filed to stop the three-year statute of limitations on the case from expiring on Friday.

One ministry official said the violent demolition of the liaison office was clearly illegal and Seoul will sternly respond to Pyongyang's infringement on property rights held by the government and public.

On June 16, 2020, the regime blew up the joint contact office in protest against North Korean defectors in the South sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, some two years after the office opened to facilitate inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation.