"Just Put It in Your Studio Apartment for Now"... Asia-Pacific Association Chairman Conceals Smuggled North Korean Paintings on a Large Scale

Rijonghyok, Vice Chairman of the Joseon Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (right), is having a conversation with An Busu, President of the Asia-Pacific Peace Exchange Association / Goyang. Photo by Kang Jinhyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Ahn Bu-su, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Exchange Association (APPEA), who was indicted on charges of embezzling company funds and smuggling foreign currency while conducting inter-Korean support projects with Ssangbangwool Group and Gyeonggi Province during Lee Jae-myung's tenure as governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2019, was found to have hidden about 45 North Korean paintings smuggled in by him in an employee’s one-room apartment and the company warehouse to evade prosecution.

According to Ahn’s indictment submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the National Assembly on the 9th, Ahn ordered APPEA employees to extensively move and hide the North Korean paintings stored in the office as the prosecution’s investigation intensified in August and September.

The prosecution stated in the indictment that around mid-August, three employees including Ahn’s secretary, Mr. A, loaded 40 North Korean paintings from the company office warehouse onto a cargo truck and transported them to the one-room apartment of APPEA Vice Chairman Mr. B under Ahn’s instructions. Then, in mid-September, they moved these paintings again to a warehouse building in Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, to hide them. Around the same time, about five North Korean paintings remaining in the APPEA office were also moved to the same warehouse building by car.

The prosecution believes that Ahn sold these paintings to raise lobbying funds necessary for inter-Korean support projects. Therefore, these paintings were key evidence to uncover Ahn’s lobbying suspicions, and it appears that Ahn judged that he must protect these paintings at all costs. In this regard, the prosecution applied charges of instructing evidence concealment against Ahn. Ahn and APPEA are also under investigation by authorities over suspicions of smuggling North Korean paintings. The prosecution and tax authorities are investigating whether there are more paintings hidden in Ahn’s possession, including 70 paintings that disappeared from APPEA’s purchase records and whose whereabouts are unknown.

Ahn was indicted on charges of smuggling foreign currency by giving $215,040 and 180 yuan to high-ranking North Korean officials as a reward for facilitating inter-Korean projects from 2018 to 2019. Specifically, it was investigated that in December 2018 in Pyongyang, he gave $70,000 to Kim Yong-chol, head of the United Front Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea and chairman of the Korea-Asia-Pacific Committee, and in January 2019 at a restaurant in China, he gave $145,040 and 1.8 million yuan to Song Myong-chol, deputy director of the Korea-Asia-Pacific Committee. Ahn and others reportedly used methods such as informal remittance and personally carrying money to China to evade government and customs surveillance. During the same period, he is also accused of embezzling 762 million won out of 1.5 billion won received as subsidies from Gyeonggi Province and others for inter-Korean projects, using it for private purposes such as stock investments and entertainment expenses.

The prosecution is accelerating the investigation after indicting Ahn. The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office is proceeding with the repatriation process of Mr. Kim, a key figure known as the “treasurer” of former Ssangbangwool Group Chairman Kim Sung-tae, who was arrested in Thailand after living abroad as a fugitive. Mr. Kim is a relative of former Chairman Kim and worked as the head of the finance division at Ssangbangwool Group, so he is expected to have detailed knowledge of the group’s inter-Korean support projects. However, Mr. Kim filed a lawsuit with a Thai court earlier this month to refuse repatriation, causing an obstacle. It is expected to take considerable time before he returns to Korea and undergoes prosecution investigation.