South Korea’s foreign minister demanded that North Korea apologize and pay for the joint liaison office it blew up last summer, further casting doubt on Pyongyang’s strength as he condemned its “senseless” insults on Wednesday.

Speaking at a debate session hosted by Seoul’s Kwanhun Club, Chung said that he “has a lot of regrets about the state of strained inter-Korean relations” and that North Korea never should have detonated the inter-Korean liaison office in the border area, which South Korea poured roughly $8.6 million worth of fresh renovations into.