Dr Qadeer’s bust sits at North Korea’s blacklisted art factory

PYONGYANG: "That was a personal commission," says renowned North Korean sculptor Ro Ik-Hwa, pointing to a bust of Dr A.Q. Khan.

The bust sits in Ro’s workshop in Pyongyang’s sprawling Mansudae Arts Studio complex, which has become the latest target of UN sanctions seeking to curb nuclear-armed North Korea’s access to overseas hard currency revenue.

The Security Council resolution adopted unanimously in early December included a paragraph explicitly preventing UN member states from buying statuary from them.

The clause was aimed at a niche but lucrative business — run from Mansudae — of exporting giant memorials mainly to Africa.

Ro, 77, is among the greatest living practitioners of such works, having been a lead artist behind some of the most iconic of Pyongyang’s monuments. 

The Khan bust was commissioned after the Pakistani scientist visited the city’s Revolutionary Martyr’s Cemetery and admired the large bronze sculptures of individuals commemorated there. 

"He asked for something similar in size and shape... so I made one," Ro told AFP during a recent tour of his studio.

"After he saw it, he really liked it and sent me a full-length photo and asked for another, so I made a two-metre tall one," he said.

Khan’s vanity purchase is dwarfed in scale and cost by the monumental multi-million dollar projects Mansudae has worked on overseas — including the 50-meter high African Renaissance Monument, completed in 2010 outside the Senegalese capital Dakar.