Shin Sang-ok, Choi Eun-hee (Photo : www.bbc.com)
A film director and a movie actress were kidnapped by North Koreans and were being forced to make films for their silver screen fan leader, Kim Jong-Il. North Korean leader wanted to create movies which lead to the kidnapping of the South Korean stars to do what he wanted.
There has been a few tries of snatching skilled and talented artists in South Korean lands, one of which was a top South Korean pianist in 1977 who was hired by a mysterious employer to play in a secluded villa outside of Zagreb. With his intuition and suspicions upon getting a glimpse of an aircraft and noticing the North Korean accent, he fled and escaped, BBC News reported.
This was not what happened to the director Shin Sang-ok and his movie star wife Choi Eun-hee who were both snatched in Hong Kong. The same strategy was used with the director and the movie star, they were lured to a meeting in a secluded house. The couple was held in North Korea and kept making films for Jong-Il.
The North Korean dictator started his leadership in 1968. His main organ of leadership was the film studio. His primary mission was to use the theater as a platform to educate his people.
Jong-Il's ambition is to elevate North Korea's cinema to the level of the Japanese entertainment industry. He also wanted to use the movies to rehabilitate the DPRK's image overseas. The North Korean film workers are never allowed to travel overseas, so they have very little exposure to the modern techniques and devices used to better their film industry.
