Illicit ceramic ware dealing is one of the most coveted lines of business aspired to by the young in North Korea. The perception that ceramic wares bring about fortunes began to emerge in the mid-1980s when they found buyers in China and Japan, and peaked during the 1989 Pyongyang Festival. It was employed as a means of meeting foreign exchange quotas allotted to public institutions such as the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, because each genuine ware could rake in cash ranging from tens of thousand US dollars to hundreds of thousand dollars.

In the North, ancient pottery sites, traditionally concentrated in South Korea, are confined to Hwanghae province including Kaesung, the capital of the Koryo dynasty. Rumors had it that the residents living near such sites were able to sustain themselves on excavated ceramic wares even during the severe mid-1990 food crisis, preceded by the suspension of food rations. Curio dealers used to sell only a limited quantity of ceramic wares ordinary citizens kept at home without knowing their real value. But a widely-spread perception that porcelain wares enable one to make a big fortune with one swoop later prompted large-scale illegal excavations of ancient pottery sites.

Essential for success in illicit ceramic ware dealings are securing firm links in Pyongyang and Kaesong. Pyongyang-based dealers with secure connections with the State Security Agency, the Ministry of People's Security (the police) and the military keep agents in Kaesong. Agents who have an eye for curios inform their bosses in the capital of new finds. If he finds a new excavation of value, a dealer rushes to Kaesong by car.

To pass several checkpoints on the Pyongyang-Kaesong expressway safely, a dealer has to use a car belonging to a potent public institution, possess a passport issued by such an organization, and adequate bribes. "Though not completely free from a sense of guilt for engaging in a business helping the nation's treasures like a quality porcelain ware of the Koryo dynasty or Shilla dynasty ornamental wares made in gold or silver leave the country, I was aware that someone else, if not I, would to it anyway," said Kim Jong-ho (alias), a North Korean defector living in the South, who dealt with curios as a sideline. "It was a trend of the times, in which many young people in Pyongyang were keenly interested."

Dealers have experts including scholars working at the Academy of Social Sciences appraise ceramic ware on offer. Regardless as to whether they are found to be genuine or false, appraisal fees running up to hundreds of dollars are paid. As many imitations appeared in the 1990s, ceramic wares sold abroad were often returned home. "Many fakes look genuine, and its safe to regard 99 out of 100 items as imitations. Even the 1,000-year-old dirt on genuine pottery is reproduced artificially," commented Yi Song-chol (alias), another North Korean defector in the South, who claims to have exported porcelain ware to Japan in the late 1990s. Recent ceramic wares produced by the Mansudae Art Studio or ceramic plants in Kaesung are falsified as genuine ones by burying them underground for years, added Yi.

(Kim Mi-young, miyoung@chosun.com )