Could The Thaw Between North And South Korea Spell The End For The World’s Least Productive Office Occupier?

It is early days, but the recent thawing of relations between North and South Korea and the possibility of denuclearisation looks like good news for the region and the world at large.

But the possibility of Korean unification could mean the end for what has to be considered one of the world’s strangest and least productive office occupiers.

In Seoul, a 5K SF office building houses an official South Korean government ministry comprising 44 staff which pretends to administer the five provinces of North Korea, the BBC reports.

Under the South Korean constitution, North Korea remains part of a united Korea. Because the Korean War never officially ended — there was simply an armistice after three years in 1953 — the South still claims to administer the North.

“I went to visit the ministry the other day and it has to be said that the Southern administrators of North Korea do not seem to be overburdened,” BBC reporter Stephen Evans said in 2015. “There seemed to be a bit of online shopping occurring on some of the computer screens.”

He described the corridors in the building as long and gloomy. The main job of those who worked there was to keep the pre-communist culture of the five provinces alive, one staff member said.

As part of the historic agreement struck between the two countries earlier this month the war will soon be declared over, and the first tentative steps toward reunification are being made. That process could cost $500B, according to the South Korean Financial Services Commission. 

If reunification does happen, there will be an office building looking for a new occupier.