Seoul police said Wednesday that they had booked an ethnic Korean woman from China for allegedly smuggling North Korean paintings into South Korea, selling them to local consumers and sending some of the profits to the North.

The 46-year-old woman, surnamed Kim, was accused of bringing in about 1,300 paintings by some well-known North Korean artists in violation of a law regulating the flow of goods between the two Koreas, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.

Police also booked three others for allegedly helping Kim peddle the smuggled artworks.

Kim is suspected of smuggling in 1,308 artworks, mostly landscape paintings created by North Korean artists, between May last year and July this year, and pocketing 30 million won ($27,943) after selling 1,139 of them to local galleries and over the Internet, police said.

<YONHAP PHOTO-0455> 북한 미술품 국내 밀반입 (서울=연합뉴스) 한상균 기자 = 서울지방경찰청 국제범죄수사대는 17일 북한 인민화가의 그림 1,308점을 국내로 밀반입한 조선족 김모씨와 이를 전시,판매한 갤러리 대표 이모씨 등 4명을 검거했다고 밝혔다. 이번에 밀반입된 북한 그림은 '만수대 창작사 조선화 창작단' 소속 화가들의 작품으로 한점 당 3∼100만원에 판매됐다. 사진은 이날 영등포 경찰서에 보관된 압수품들. 2011.8.17 xyz@yna.co.kr/2011-08-17 10:55:33/ <저작권자 ⓒ 1980-2011 ㈜연합뉴스. 무단 전재 재배포 금지.>\r\nThe Seoul Metropolitan Police display some of the 1,308 contraband works by North Korean artists sold from 30,000 won ($28) to 1 million won, after police arrested four people for smuggling the works from the communist state. Yonhap News
북한 미술품 국내 밀반입 (서울=연합뉴스) 한상균 기자 = 서울지방경찰청 국제범죄수사대는 17일 북한 인민화가의 그림 1,308점을 국내로 밀반입한 조선족 김모씨와 이를 전시,판매한 갤러리 대표 이모씨 등 4명을 검거했다고 밝혔다. 이번에 밀반입된 북한 그림은 '만수대 창작사 조선화 창작단' 소속 화가들의 작품으로 한점 당 3∼100만원에 판매됐다. 사진은 이날 영등포 경찰서에 보관된 압수품들. 2011.8.17 xyz@yna.co.kr/2011-08-17 10:55:33/ <저작권자 ⓒ 1980-2011 ㈜연합뉴스. 무단 전재 재배포 금지.>\r\nThe Seoul Metropolitan Police display some of the 1,308 contraband works by North Korean artists sold from 30,000 won ($28) to 1 million won, after police arrested four people for smuggling the works from the communist state. Yonhap News

The Seoul Metropolitan Police display some of the 1,308 contraband works by North Korean artists sold from 30,000 won ($28) to 1 million won, after police arrested four people for smuggling the works from the communist state. (Yonhap News)

Police said the North Korean artists include some famous names who were authorized by the Pyongyang regime and affiliated with the communist country’s top-notch Mansudae art community widely known to be peddling artwork overseas as a means of earning foreign currency.

Kim is believed to have obtained those paintings through her North Korean husband living in China who uses his membership in an expatriates’ support committee in North Korea to secure his supply, police said.

Kim’s husband is believed to have clinched the supply of artwork on the condition that he pays $8,000 won annually on top of half the sales proceeds to the art community, according to the police.

“It is the first case ever to confirm that North Korea is selling (artwork) abroad through the committee,” a police official said.

Police said that the artwork, smuggled personally or through international mail, was mostly sold to art galleries in Incheon, Daejeon and Gwangju for prices ranging from 30,000 won to 1 million won per unit.

Police said they plan to expand the investigation as more North Korean goods could be smuggled into the country.

(Yonhap News)


swchun@heraldcorp.com