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There is a doctor who calls himself a ‘Nomad.’ It is a symbolic expression of living creatively by constantly seeking change without staying in one place. The protagonist is Professor Han-Gyeom Kim, Emeritus Professor at Korea University College of Medicine and Director of Hailab at Hanaro Medical Foundation. As a pathologist, he is not an ordinary doctor.

He is the top authority on Korean mummy research, a photographer who has held six photo exhibitions, and a polar researcher serving as the chairman of the University Polar Medicine Society. He is a 7th dan kendo master who has practiced swordsmanship for 50 years and a global volunteer spreading medical knowledge in Mongolia and Madagascar, Africa.

When I met Professor Kim for lunch on the 7th, he said, “It’s been a while since we met, and there’s a good place,” and led me to a nearby restaurant that served free Dongdongju. The interview was conducted for two hours in his office at Hailab, Hanaro Medical Foundation, where he works.

Professor Emeritus Kim Han-gyeom of Korea University is being interviewed at his office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 7th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

There were eight mummies at Korea University, right? You retired from your professorship; what is the current situation?

Four mummies are at Korea University Guro Hospital, and four are in the anatomy department refrigerator at Anam Hospital. Various issues have arisen over time. Internally, there were questions like ‘Why should corpses be there?’ which led to a health center inspection. The mummies are indeed corpses?several hundred years old, but without legal status. It has been reported multiple times in the media, so now the hospital finds it burdensome to dispose of them. As it became an issue, the National Assembly took interest and enacted a law in 2021.

So, can the mummies now be preserved systematically?

How great would that be? When I first heard about the law, I cheered. But later, when a broadcasting company inquired about mummies, I told them to ask the Cultural Heritage Administration since preservation was now legal. Then I heard something surprising: the law only preserves newly discovered mummies. After hearing that, I thought it would have been better not to make such a law. The chances of finding mummies in the future are much lower than before. The five-year national land development projects are over, and apartment construction has reached a point where there is hardly any land left to develop. It was quite disappointing.

Is that why you appeared on ‘You Quiz on the Block’?

I originally had no intention of going. I said I wouldn’t, but an acquaintance told me, ‘If you appear there, it will have a big social impact.’ So I called the producers and said I would go. Later, I saw I was introduced as a ‘mummy expert.’ After watching the broadcast, the Cultural Heritage Administration took some action and came to investigate.

Where did they come? To the hospital?

Yes. They came last year and asked some interesting questions. The first was, ‘Why are Korean mummies important?’ The second was, ‘How are Korean mummies different from foreign mummies?’ I told them if they were going to ask such childish questions, they shouldn’t interview me.

If mummies weren’t important, they wouldn’t have come to me. But asking elementary school-level questions and treating it like a feasibility study felt like a refusal in disguise.

What was the conclusion?

Simply, there is no money, no experts, and no facilities. If they had intended to care for the mummies, they would have secured a budget, built a building, invited experts, and created a mummy museum or added such facilities to an existing museum.

So, are the mummies still preserved at Korea University?

Yes. I believe they will be maintained as they are going forward.

Professor Emeritus Kim Hangyeom (left) is examining the mummy. Photo by Kim Hangyeom

Is there much research on mummy preservation? It seems difficult.

No one knows how to preserve Korean mummies. People think Korean mummies are the same as Egyptian mummies, but they are completely different. Egyptian mummies don’t show up on MRI scans, but Korean mummies do because they contain moisture. Some mummies still have elasticity. So drying out the moisture to preserve Korean mummies is not appropriate. Like museums, the answer might be to keep internal moisture while preventing infection. Some say Korean mummies are too few to be meaningful, and some scholars even argue they should be cremated.

Wouldn’t cremation make continued research difficult?

Exactly. Where is research that ends after one study? How can anyone be confident that all research is complete? As science and technology advance, new discoveries can be made, and other researchers may find new things. I was shocked to learn that some scholars hold such frightening views. We live in a world where bloodstains from 50 years ago are preserved to catch criminals. It’s regrettable that some think their research is the best and final word.

The clothing worn by the mummies has been designated as cultural heritage.

It was designated in 2021. The clothes worn became cultural heritage, but unfortunately, the mummies themselves did not. Some mummies have been lost because they were not preserved during this process.

I understand some mummies were people who never met in life but met after death.

Those are the mummies at Korea University Guro Hospital. Two mummies excavated around 2010 in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, were the wife of one man. They are presumed to be the first and second wives of a nobleman who lived before the Imjin War. They never met in life but met after death. The coffin thickness was over 10 cm, which would cost over 100 million won today. The mummies, the main figures, should be well cared for, but they are kept in coffins worth only 200,000 to 300,000 won.

Professor Emeritus Kim Han-gyeom emphasized that Korean mummies are globally rare. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Some find mummies scary, but mummy storytelling seems possible.

Yes. I think it’s a scientific battle. What we discover through medicine and advanced science should be international news. Take the mummy of the Pyeong Yun family mother and child. It is the only case in the world of a mummy formed from death during childbirth. It is rare.

Also, the mummy’s owner was the great-granddaughter of Yun Won-hyung, a powerful noble in early Joseon. How is that different from the royal family in Egypt? The clothing is important because it was worn by the highest nobleman of the time, so why is the wearer not important?

The cause of death was uterine rupture, but we have not properly studied what diseases our ancestors died from. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty record five kings who died coughing up blood. What was the cause? Mummies can be messengers revealing such information, so why should they be neglected? There is endless research to be done in mummy studies.

What should be done going forward?

I don’t know what excavation sites will be like in the future, but the chances of finding mummies are not high. First, we could gather all existing mummies and create a mummy museum. There is a fuss about not being able to bring mummies from abroad, but if we exhibited them together whenever they come, it would be impressive and allow comparisons. Children are very interested, so I hope a museum is built. It could be the only one of its kind in the world.

Let’s talk about the polar regions. What sparked your interest?

I wanted to go since I was young. I wanted to walk in Antarctica. One day, while living a routine life as a professor, I went abroad to meet a colleague. I visited a museum built like the ship ‘Chebingsun’ where I could see life in the polar regions in the 50s and 60s. That reignited my passion. When I called the Polar Research Institute, they said it was too risky for anyone over 40. I was 45 then, so I gave up.

Then in 2005, when the media reported I was running a frozen lung tissue bank, the head of the Polar Research Institute wanted to meet me. He studied plankton and found that plankton survives winter by secreting antifreeze proteins that coat their bodies. I study freezing preservation, so it was like spear meeting shield. Seeing a good opportunity, I said, ‘Let’s go to Antarctica,’ but he said it takes a month to get there, so let’s go to the Arctic first. In April 2006, I went to the Arctic Dasan Station.

Working in the polar regions is not easy. They select physically healthy people, but mental health issues also arise. People can be divided into ‘those who have attained enlightenment’ and ‘those who have turned their backs on the world.’ Even people who got along well can have problems after living together in extreme conditions for a long time.

After returning, I established the Polar Medicine Research Society at Korea University College of Medicine. At that time, the concept of polar research was barely known. We discovered and published findings on viruses in the polar regions. Then, perhaps stimulated by us, the French came to the Siberian permafrost to present, and polar medicine research competition began. In June 2014, doctors who had been to the polar regions founded the Korean Polar Medicine Society, and I served as its first president. Despite difficulties, we continued research steadily and received corporate status from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries this year.

Why is polar medicine important?

It is very important. In the future, women will be on submarines. There is no research on how Koreans will respond in extreme environments. We don’t know what will happen when we explore the moon or Mars. Japan is already researching Mars. They study human reactions in similar environments in the polar regions. We have no accumulated data.

Someday, we will go too. Along with research on local microorganisms, medical and psychological studies on humans are needed. What to do if a patient occurs, what if a doctor dies, and so on?discussing and training for these processes is already hard. Will we just say, ‘As long as there are no accidents, it’s fine’ without any preparation?

Another important thing is bio new materials. There are many difficulties in utilizing new substances discovered or excavated in the polar regions for humans. It’s like Death Valley. Crossing Death Valley, we might develop new substances usable by humanity. A representative example is microorganisms living in underwater volcanoes. The substances produced by amplifying and inserting genes from those microorganisms come from underwater volcanoes.

These can be valuable or important moments in many aspects. Small things can cause huge changes. It’s not expensive. We overlooked this before, but if we succeed, if a bio venture succeeds, it could become a lunchbox that feeds Korea more than semiconductors. Surely, these are not the only important substances.

A scene of medical education in Madagascar, Africa. Photo by Han-kyum Kim

Professor Kim is also actively involved with Mongolia and Africa. Triggered by mummy research, he first visited Mongolia in 2005 and has been there 25 times since. After becoming chairman of the Korean Society of Pathologists in 2007, he devoted himself to teaching Mongolian doctors, including transferring cervical cancer diagnostic methods. Professor Kim said, “In the 1980s, WHO came to Korea and taught pathologists for about five years. Now we are repaying that. I feel proud.”

After judging that Mongolia had reached a certain level of education, Professor Kim turned his attention to Madagascar, Africa. Since 2014, he has visited about six times to educate doctors, and now Madagascar has become the strongest country in pathology in Africa.

With support from Korea, Madagascar has become a powerhouse in pathology in Africa. Photo by Professor Kim Hangyeom

Do you have a wish you want to fulfill?

I want to share knowledge through international health cooperation projects. If there is a country that can do it, I want to help that country. Through such education, the country changes, and they can diagnose themselves. It may seem trivial, but the world changes through such things.

What is your life motto?

“Enjoy life, which happens only once,” “Enjoy life, live happily.” Everyone dies eventually. If there is no big problem with living, it is important to live proactively. Being proactive means some people like you, and some don’t. Life seems to be exactly half and half.

[Who is Han-Gyeom Kim?]

Born in Seoul in 1955. Graduated from Kyungdong High School and Korea University College of Medicine, and earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Korea University. He served as Dean of Student Affairs at Korea University, chairman of the Korean Society of Pathologists, and chairman of the Korea Anti-Doping Agency. In 2008, he founded the Korea University Volunteer Service Group. He began kendo in 1968 and is currently a 7th dan, challenging 8th dan. Since this year, he has been the kendo instructor for the Korea University College of Medicine kendo club, working with juniors 50 years his junior.

His military service at the Army Scientific Investigation Institute led him to photography, holding six exhibitions including ‘Microscope Photo Exhibition.’ He has used over 50 cameras so far. He was also active in art clubs during middle, high school, and university. His dream is to live as a global medical volunteer and to see a mummy museum established. Currently, he is an emeritus professor at Korea University, chairman of the Korean Polar Medicine Society, and director of Hailab at Hanaro Medical Foundation.

Professor Emeritus Kim holds a 7th dan in Kendo and is a top expert in the medical field. Photo by Kim Hangyeom