SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – South Korean police said Thursday they had broken up an art smuggling ring used to raise money for the North by selling paintings produced by state artists.

Police said the case confirmed the impoverished communist state had secretly been selling art abroad to earn much-needed hard currency.

“The North’s art studio obviously earns foreign cash out of this deal,” said Lee Heung-Hoon, a senior detective in Seoul.

Police said they were holding a 46-year-old Korean-Chinese woman, surnamed Kim, on suspicion of smuggling some 1,300 North Korean paintings via China.

Officers were also questioning three South Koreans who allegedly sold 1,139 paintings for a total of 30 million won ($27,900).

Police believe that since May last year Kim was either personally smuggling paintings into South Korea from China or sending the artwork via international mail.

They said her husband, a North Korean citizen doing business in China, brought the art to China under an agreement with the North’s state-controlled Mansudae Art Studio.

The studio would receive $8,000 a year in addition to half of the profits from the sale of the paintings.

Police said the paintings, including landscapes and portraits, were sold in South Korea along with photos of North Korean artists clad in typical Mao suits holding the artworks to prove their authenticity.

The Mansudae Art Studio on its website promotes itself as “probably the largest art production center in the world” with 1,000 artists producing oil paintings, sculptures, carvings and embroideries.

The North has been beset by shortages of electricity, raw materials, food and hard cash. It has also been hit by international sanctions due to the North’s pursuit of ballistic missiles and atomic weapons.

South Korea restricted trade with the communist state after accusing Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010.

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