Famously dubbed the ‘hermit kingdom’, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has lodged a complaint with the United Nations against American film titled The Interview, which is based on a plot to kill its supreme leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea has alleged that in allowing production of the movie, the United States is sponsoring terrorism and committing an act of war, reported Reuters.
Starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, the comedy is about an American television-show host Dave Skylark (Franco) and producer Aaron Rapoport (Rogen). After the two discover that Jong-un is a fan of their programme, they manage to land an interview with him. Jong-un may be portrayed to be a fan of the show on reel, but in reality, the film has fanned the flames of detestation in Pyongyang.
The duo is then recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate the North Korean leader, according to IMDb.
The letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon from North Korea’s UN Ambassador Ja Song Nam, dated June 27 but made public this week, does not mention the name of the movie but highlights a plot that “involves insulting and assassinating the supreme leadership.” The letter states, “To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war.”
According to The Guardian, a recent trailer of The Interview shows Skylark and Rapoport being briefed by Agent Lacey (Lizzy Kaplan) about Jong-un’s oddities, which, in the film, include convincing his people that he can speak to dolphins and that he never urinates or defecates.
“The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism,” Nam warns in the letter.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, executive director of the Centre for North Korea-US Peace, Kim Myong-chol, snubbed the gibes taken at Jong-un in The Interview, referring to its content as a symbol of “desperation.” He said, “There is a special irony in this storyline as it shows the desperation of the US government and American society. A film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.”
Myong-chol also said that despite its questionable plot, Jong-un will probably still watch the film. Following the news, Rogen took to Twitter and posted, “Apparently, Kim Jong-un plans on watching #TheInterview. I hope he likes it!” Well, he clearly doesn’t, so far.
Often panned for its undemocratic, iron-fisted control over local media and propagandist tilt towards western powers, North Korea has been marginalised by the global community. North Korea’s anti-US sentiment can be traced back to its sour relations with South Korea, a Major non-Nato ally of the US.
The country has frequently expressed its abhorrence for the US through mediums of mass media. Last year, a video went viral, which depicted a young man dreaming of a US city, which bears resemblance to New York, under an apparent missile attack. Produced by North Korea’s official website Uriminzokkiri, the video showed what appears to be the Empire State Building up in flames, according to yahoo.com. The video’s caption, as translated by The Guardian, reads, “It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze.”
The Interview has been co-written and co-directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and features Korean-American actor Randall Park as Jong-un. It is slated for release in October this year.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2014.
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