Nevertheless, the continuation of Pyöng-yang as an open port is uncertain, the Korean Government having expressed the intention of closing the port if they are compelled to throw open Wi-ju. The British, American and Japanese representatives have resolutely opposed this suggestion. The port of Kun-san, which was thrown open in May 1899, to foreign settlement and general trade, taps channels in the main identical with those which supply Mok-po. Depending to a great extent upon the agricultural resources of the provinces of Chyöl-la and Chyung-chyöng, its trade is confined to the exportation of cereals, such as rice, wheat, and beans; of grass-cloth, paper, and bamboo articles; and of varieties of fish and seaweed. When the railway between Seoul and Fusan is completed, the development of the agricultural resources of these areas will re-act upon the fortunes of this port. It is, however, quietly thriving in the interval, content to play a prominent _rôle_ in the coast trade rather than to figure as a port of call, in any exchange of commodities with China and Japan. In early days, the port itself was well known as the export station for revenue rice, when the Government revenues were paid in grain. The practice has not been maintained in more recent years. In Kun-san there is an increasing colony of Japanese, a large native population, and a small Chinese community. The import trade, however, is confined to Japanese manufactures, including, broadly, those counterfeits of foreign goods—Manchester shirtings, Chinese lawns, Indian yarns, American kerosene and English and Swedish matches—in the production of which our lively imitators have attained an unusual standard of perfection.