North Korea is working to completely dismantle a $38 million South Korean government tower in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, five years after blowing up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office next door.

Planet Labs imagery shows the 15-story KIC Support Center (종합지원센터) being gradually taken apart this year, likely a sign of North Korean efforts to recycle materials from the building. 

The ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff previously released a photo in March showing dismantlement underway, after reporting that DPRK workers appeared to be removing materials since Dec. 2024.

Now, almost all of the shorter building section on the west side of the tower has been removed, while roofing and exterior materials appear gone from the tower section. The rest of the building will likely be entirely removed in the coming months.

The ROK government built the Support Center from 2007 to 2009 at a cost of around 53 billion won. Seoul was building up the sprawling KIC at the time — located near the border but in North Korean territory — as an economic zone where ROK companies would operate factories staffed by DPRK workers. 

The building permanently closed along with the rest of the KIC in 2016 when South Korea pulled out of the operation. 

Amid improving bilateral ties, the two sides established a new Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office in Sept. 2018 in the same lot but across from the Support Center, inside a smaller building previously called the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Consultation Office (남북교류협력협의사무소).

The project did not last long, however, and North Korea blew the building up in June 2020. 

The explosion severely damaged the Support Center, but both buildings in the lot actually remained standing, with debris littered across the surrounding area for years. The exchange and cooperation office was finally fully dismantled in 2024.

North Korea began using South Korean factories in the KIC without permission in early 2023. Roads and roundabouts across the complex were repainted at the end of last year, signalling continued use of ROK facilities.

As part of Pyongyang’s efforts to completely cut off relations with the South, the North blocked the main cross-border road and dismantled a rail bridge nearby the complex, and severed ROK electrical supplies to the complex late last year as well.

NK Pro previously reported on North Korea’s efforts to dismantle the Inter-Korean Family Reunions Center, another multi-million-dollar South Korean tower on the east coast.

The latest Planet Labs imagery shows progress taking down roofing structures in recent months, but the building is still standing.

Edited by Bryan Betts