[Kokkomu Steaming Review] The actress abducted by North Korea... Enter the world that Kim Jong-il dreamed of as a 'movie maniac'

[SBS Entertainment News |

Reporter Kang Seon-ae] The story of that day in history that we should not forget, 'Jang Trio' Jang Hyeon-seong, Jang Seong-gyu, and Jang Do-yeon tell the story of SBS 'The Story of the Day I Bitten My Tail' (hereafter 'Kokkomu').

For those who missed the main broadcast, or for those who have watched the broadcast but want to review its contents, SBS Entertainment News will put it all together in one room.

, which aired on the 28th

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As story friends, actors Park Hyo-joo, Shinhwa Jeon-jin, and Weki Meki Kim Do-yeon appeared. (The review is conducted in a semi-verbal mode to fit the characteristics of 'Kkokomu'.)

January 1978, in Hong Kong A female guest is missing from a hotel.

Everything she had in her possession remained in her room, only her person disappeared.

When this news became known, the whole of Korea was shocked.

The woman who disappeared was actress Choi Eun-hee.

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Do you know the popular 1960s movie 'Sarangbang Guest and Mother'?

The scene where young Ok-hee sings "Mister ~" with her cute voice is still making several parodies.

The actress who played the role of Ok-hee's mother in that movie is Choi Eun-hee.

She was so popular that she received her Best Actress Award at the 1st Grand Bell Awards, and the top star of her time, who was recognized for her acting skills, has disappeared.

But when she disappears, rumors of her atrocities begin to circulate.

Suspicions are starting to emerge that her Choi Eun-hee's disappearance may have something to do with her ex-husband, whom she divorced two years ago.

Her ex-husband is also a huge celebrity.

Choi Eun-hee's ex-husband was Shin Sang-ok, the director of Shin Film, the largest film company at the time, and the film director who dominated the Korean film industry.

Director Shin left her children "don't worry, I'll bring her mom so stay at her house" and flew to Hong Kong to find her Choi Eun-hee.

And after a while, news broke that even director Shin had disappeared.

The top stars and film directors of the time went missing one after another.

. Let's find out how Choi Eun-hee went missing.

At that time, Eunhee Choi went to Hong Kong at her invitation.

However, she said that the person who was supposed to meet her had an urgent appointment, so she waited a few days to comfort her.

Instead, she met a woman who arranged for Choi Eun-hee her meeting with her investor that she was interested in her art.

Choi Eun-hee followed her woman, and she said that she was going to meet her at a beachside villa, so she accidentally got into her boat.

But she sensed something strange about her boat heading to a different place than the promised place.

At that time, the man on the ship said to Choi Eun-hee, "Mr. Choi, we are going to the arms of the general. We are going to the arms of the great leader."

that's right.

Choi Eun-hee's ship was headed for North Korea.

Surprised, Eun-hee Choi shouted, “Please send me back” and “Save someone,” and at that moment another man came and put Choi Eun-hee to sleep with her syringe anesthetic.

That's how Choi Eun-hee stepped on North Korean soil that she could not have imagined.

Eight days after she boarded the ship, she reached North Korean soil.

As she got off the pier, a man approached and asked to shake hands.

The man said, "Thank you for coming, this is my Kim Jong-il."

With the appearance of Kim Jong-il, flashes went off everywhere and pictures were taken.

This is the picture I took then.

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Kim Jong-il took Choi Eun-hee next to the limousine and guided him around the city of North Korea himself.

After that, he took her Choi Eun-hee to his villa and said, "You must be tired from coming, but think of it like my own home and rest in peace."

You kidnapped me and forcibly brought me back and rested in peace.

I was angry, scared and nervous, but there was nothing I could do.

After that, Kim Jong-il's appeal to Choi Eun-hee continued.

Kim Jong-il did not hesitate to throw her jokes to win the favor of her Choi Eun-hee, and served her alcohol with her finest food.

At night, a colorful banquet was held every night.

And so, Eun-hee Choi's luxurious life in North Korea began.

Choi Eun-hee was scared.

She thought, 'Isn't she trying to dedicate me to Kim Il-sung?' and 'What is Kim Jong-il trying to do with me?'

She had days of nervousness and surprise even when people pretended to be popular in front of her visit.

Choi Eun-hee also received North Korean ideology education for five hours a day.

At night she drank and sang and danced and played.

She sent a 'North Korean version of gold'.

Did Choi Eun-hee like this kind of life?

Her most difficult time was around sunset.

She said, "She looks south and calls out names as she thinks of each person. She calls out the names of the children and the family. Then she just calms down and cries out loud. She's been living like that for five years."

One day, five years later, I got a call from Kim Jong-il inviting him to a party.

In front of Choi Eun-hee, who was invited to Kim Jong-il's house, someone appeared, and it was director Shin Sang-ok.

'Am I seeing ghosts?

Why is that person in North Korea?'

Director Shin was also kidnapped by North Korean agents in the same way as Choi Eun-hee.

However, director Shin tried to escape twice immediately after being brought to North Korea and was imprisoned in a political prison camp, where he met Choi Eun-hee for the first time in five years.

I have a photo I took that day.

The person holding arms between Choi Eun-hee and Shin is Kim Jong-il.

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Since that day, Eunhee Choi and director Shin have been living together.

The two had a conversation in the bathroom to avoid wiretapping.

They confirmed their desire to return to their families and made a plan to escape from North Korea together.

"Up until now, we've been directing and acting in other people's lives. From now on, we're directing and acting our lives beautifully."

The two started writing a screenplay for their escape.

The first thing the two of them did was 'collect evidence'.

I needed evidence to prove that 'I didn't come to North Korea because I wanted to, I was kidnapped and brought.'

At that time, rumors spread in South Korea that the two people's disappearance was 'voluntarily defecting to North Korea'.

The reason is 'censorship'.

At that time, censorship of creative works was strict in Korea.

To make a film, you had to report it to the government and get it inspected.

Director Shin was very dissatisfied with the censorship system, so the government had a hatred.

Then, the studio that director Shin was running was censored and the license was revoked.

As a film director in Korea, this is the end.

So, when Director Shin disappeared, rumors circulated that 'Didn't he go to North Korea on his own feet?'

In a situation like this, I didn't think anyone would believe me if I said, 'It wasn't North Korea, it was kidnapping'.

So I needed proof.

The method of collecting evidence that the two chose was 'recording'.

It was decided to record Kim Jong-il's voice.

What if I get caught while recording?

I could die.

October 19, 1984, the day we agreed to meet Kim Jong-il.

The three of them sat at the round table.

Just as Kim Jong-il was about to start speaking, Choi Eun-hee pretended to take out her handkerchief and pressed the recorder button in her bag.

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This is the original tape of the actual voice recording device that recorded Kim Jong-il's voice 40 years ago.

We succeeded in secretly recording Kim Jong-il's voice, and fortunately, the necessary words were included in the recording.

“After 30 years of socialism, if you want to feed and save the people, you can’t do it unless you go out to the western world”, “After looking through the movie materials, who do you choose the most in South Korea? So, it’s the new director. Good, then that I have to bring people in once", "What do you need to lure Director Shin? So, I sneakily brought Mr. Choi like this."

They even kidnapped Choi Eun-hee as a bait to bring in director Shin.

Then why did Kim Jong-il want to bring Director Shin to North Korea?

The reason is included in the recording.

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“Why is it that our films are often repeated every day, and schematically, there is no such thing as a new movie storyline?”, “There are no works worthy of participating in an art contest”, “Advanced into the West as a film” I have to do it”, “So I have high expectations for Shin.”

The purpose of kidnapping the two was to make a film that could reach the world.

Kim Jong-il said he was a huge movie buff.

He had a home theater the size of a high school at home, and he said he had collected over 10,000 films from around the world and watched them alone.

With that in mind, I had a very high eye for watching movies, and movies made in North Korea would not have been stingy.

How can we make a decent film in North Korea? The solution was to bring in talented people from South Korea.

planned an overseas location for their escape.

He went abroad with the excuse of filming and didn't want to come back.

Kim Jong-il readily allowed it, but only allowed the location to a communist country, not the country the two of them wanted to go to.

The two could not escape physically, but instead succeeded in secretly delivering the recording tape to an acquaintance they met abroad.

Two people who only dreamed of the day they could escape and made as many movies as 10 films a year.

Kim Jong-il's full support continued.

With our money, we spent 30 billion won to create a studio with more than 300 rooms, including a studio, recording studio, and preview room, and mobilized 1,000 people if we needed extras.

He even instructed me to blow up a real train if we were to shoot a scene where the train was exploding.

With such full support from Kim Jong-il, director Shin made films of various genres, which even won awards at overseas film festivals, greatly satisfying Kim Jong-il.

Kim Jong-il's dream of going into the world through films has come true.

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Kim Jong-il rewarded both of them.

Even if the huge rewards continued, the two only wanted to return to their families.

Director Shin said, "In North Korea, I use toothpaste. After I finish squeezing it, I throw it away."

The two, who missed their family so much, asked Kim Jong-il to let him tell the South Korean family, and Kim Jong-il allowed it.

The two forcibly held back their tears, recorded their voices and delivered them to the South Korean family.

However, the tape was transferred to the Ministry of Security and Security, and the government made a major announcement that Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok were detained in North Korea.

As a result, there was a flood of requests from South Korea to send the two back home.

Then Kim Jong-il freed the two of them so that they did not appear to have been kidnapped and his image did not get worse.

Filming overseas has only become a communist country, but now you are allowed to go to liberal or neutral countries.

On the contrary, the two people who received good news headed to Austria, a neutral country.

And before they left, they asked Kim Jong-il to keep the bodyguards from sticking together even in front of reporters, saying that he could be suspicious of the strict security guard, and Kim Jong-il accepted even this.

The two of them went to Austria after 8 years of coming to North Korea, and they wrote a scenario to outrun the bodyguards.

The next day, I called a Japanese reporter who was planning an interview and asked me to call a taxi in advance.

On the day of the interview, the two told the bodyguards that followed that 'Kim Jong-il allowed it' and prevented them from following them.

So, without a bodyguard, they got into a taxi with a Japanese reporter and earnestly begged, "Please, let us go to the American embassy."

But a white taxi followed them.

I saw an opportunity and managed to get away with it, but on the way to the US embassy, ​​the taxi's radio rang.

The content of the radio was 'Where are the destinations of the three Asians in the taxi?'

The two begged the taxi driver earnestly, "Tell me we're going in the opposite direction."

And the Japanese reporter also asked her to take out all the money she had.

The taxi driver granted their earnest request, and so the two arrived safely in front of the US embassy.

They frantically ran inside, and were protected by the US embassy.

The recording tapes they had handed over to their acquaintances were delivered to the US government in advance.

The CIA couldn't even find any traces of Kim Jong-il, but these two men sent the highest quality information.

In response, the U.S. government has issued an order in advance to U.S. embassies around the world to take protective measures in case the two people visit.

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At that moment, while he was barely breathing, the consul handed a pale pink rose to Choi Eun-hee and said to welcome her.

Only then did Choi Eun-hee sit down and pour out the tears she had been holding back.

She's been acting for the past 8 years, and she's finally succeeded in her escape for this day.

So, did the two of them return to Korea?

no.

After that, the two chose asylum in the United States rather than returning to their homeland.

He said he didn't like North Korea's tyranny, but also hated the South Korean military regime, saying, "I don't want to be an anti-communist trumpeter."

When they returned to Korea, it was obvious that they would be mobilized for all kinds of anti-communist propaganda.

In fact, if you look at the documents made in Korea right after the two of them escaped, there are plans to use them.

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It is said that the two people who defected to the United States were able to live with their families while disguising their names and nationalities in accordance with the protection measures of the United States.

Then, 15 years later, the two returned to Korea and passed away in 2006 and 2018.

(SBS Entertainment News reporter Kang Seon-ae)