With a population of 150,000, Kaesong, just across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the west coast, is the ancient capital of the 500 year Koryo Dynasty, home to the largest numbers of historical remains and relics in North Korea. Because of this reason, Kaesong has undergone the ordeal of being excavated at random. According to Kim Song-ryong (alias), a North Korean defector who comes from the town, the 1994-98 food crisis hit the ancient capital too. Before the famine, Kaesong citizens enjoyed living standards comparable to those of their Pyongyang counterparts, thanks to such specialties as Kaesong ginseng. However, with food rations suspended due to the food crisis, Kaesong citizens had to sustain serious harm since their movements were restricted, while people elsewhere were able to sustain themselves by doing business traveling to the border areas with China. Entries to Kaesong require special passes with a blue stripe printed on them, and none can access the DMZ.

An antique boom began to emerge late in the 1980s and peaked in 1994. Since genuine Koryo celadon ware could fetch an exorbitant sum ranging between thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, not only brokers, swindlers and trading firm staffers, but also some State Security Agency, People's Army Security Command and Ministry of People's Security (the police) officers, were all bent on making big money quickly, and plunged themselves into the antique business.

The number of grave robber groups operating in the Kaesong area is said to have increased from about a dozen to a little over 100. Specialized antique dealers of scale, capable of mobilizing tens of thousands of dollars, allegedly travel from the capital to Kaesong by jeeps assigned to the Security Command of the People's Army or the State Security Agency.

Aggravating food shortages prompted even some ordinary citizens, let alone specialized robbers, to excavate tombs illegally. They have dug out, not only ancient tombs having no one attending to them, but also all the mounds in the city's suburbs that resembled ancient tombs. Ordinary tomb robbers could earn on the spot between US$100 and US$500 per artifact removed from a tomb.

Tomb robbers have accumulated considerable know-how, according to Lee Suk-hui (alias), another North Korean defector who had worked the antique business in the North. Soft clay was used for the funeral mound of an illustrious official and the coffin inside was surrounded with soft-stone-mixed clay and quicklime, which maintains its hardness for more than 100 years, while cement crumbles over that period. Hence artifacts buried in the tomb are all virtually intact. If an iron skewer, stuck into the ground, moves smoothly, tomb robbers take it as a sign of a potentially valuable tomb, and if it hits something hard suddenly it tells where the coffin is laid.

Among the antiques thus collected are quite valuable Koryo celadon ware and less valuable white porcelain produced during the Yi Dynasty. Also excavated are pendants, folded fans, folded screens and paintings, all of which attract the attention of antique brokers. The antique boom produced hordes of swindlers, and 90% of antiques on the market are said to be imitations. Some young people, blinded by a desire to make big money overnight, are said to have robbed the Koryo Museum in Kaesong, only to be arrested and executed early in 1995. Some State Security agents and policemen too reportedly met the same fate several years later, when caught while attempting to steal Koryo celadon ware out of the same museum.

North Korea is said to strictly administer state-designated historical remains, but rumors abound in the country that because some men of clout have been so desperate to divert them, quite a number of treasures have been smuggled out of museums. In many instances, it is alleged to be difficult to discern which are genuine and which are false.

Most antiques thus collected are taken out to China through the border city of Sinjuju, while some are surreptitiously sold to foreigners at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang. Mainly Japanese visitors have collected the smuggled items. Quite a few North Koreans who have negotiated antique dealings with South Koreans have reportedly been prosecuted as political offenders. Most antiques coming out of North Korea recently are said to be fakes, because the most valuable items have already been sold.

It's a stroke of good luck in the midst of misfortune that despite such rampant tomb robberies, taken part in by military personnel as well as private citizens, historical relics such as the Sonjukgyo Bridge, the Tomb of Wanggon, the founder of the Koryo Dynasty, and the King Kongmin Tomb, are administered by the state and kept intact.

(Kang Chol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com )