"THE KIDNAPPING OF - CHOI EUN-HEE AND SHIN SANG-OK - THE MOST FAMOUS ACTRESS AND DIRECTOR OF SOUTH KOREA"

It reads like a high-stakes Cold War thriller, but for Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok, it was a decade-long nightmare. This remains one of the most audacious state-sponsored kidnappings in history.

The Victims: South Korea's Golden Couple

In the 1960s, Choi Eun-hee was the most famous actress in South Korea, and Shin Sang-ok was its premier director. Known as the "Orson Welles of Korea," Shin ran a massive studio. However, by the late 1970s, their luck had soured: they had divorced following Shin's affair, and the South Korean government had shut down Shin’s film studio.

The Motive: Kim Jong Il’s Cinematic Obsession

The mastermind was Kim Jong Il, the son and heir-apparent of Kim Il Sung. Kim was a massive cinephile with a library of over 15,000 films. He was deeply frustrated by the poor quality of North Korean propaganda films, which he felt were stiff and lacked emotional depth.

His solution? Kidnap the best talent in the South to force them to modernize their film industry and win international awards for the North.

The Kidnappings (1978)

The operation took place in two stages in Hong Kong:

1. Choi Eun-hee (January): Choi was lured to Hong Kong under the guise of a business meeting to discuss a potential school in Repulse Bay. She was drugged and bundled onto a speedboat, eventually arriving in Nampo, North Korea.

2. Shin Sang-ok (July): When Choi went missing, Shin went to Hong Kong to investigate. He was similarly abducted, though he proved much more difficult to handle.

The Captivity

While Choi was treated with luxury (provided with a villa and tutors), Shin attempted to escape twice. As punishment, he was sent to Prison Camp No. 6, where he survived for nearly five years on a diet of grass and salt. In 1983, Kim Jong Il finally brought the two together at a banquet, revealing they were being held to serve the state.

The "Shin Film" Era

Between 1983 and 1986, the couple made seven films for North Korea. Kim Jong Il gave them an unlimited budget and creative freedom (within ideological bounds).

• The Masterpiece: Their most famous work was Pulgasari (1985), a Godzilla-style monster movie that served as a metaphor for the dangers of unchecked capitalism (or, subversively, the Kim regime itself).

• The Recording: Fearing no one would believe they were kidnapped, Choi hid a tape recorder in her purse during a meeting with Kim Jong Il, capturing him admitting to the abduction.

The Escape (1986)

The couple spent years earning Kim’s trust. In 1986, they were granted permission to attend a film festival in Vienna, Austria, to negotiate a distribution deal.

While under the watchful eyes of North Korean minders, they managed to slip into a taxi and race toward the U.S. Embassy. After a frantic car chase through the streets of Vienna, they reached the gates and pleaded for asylum. They were eventually flown to the United States under CIA protection.

Aftermath and Current Status

• Living in Exile: They lived in the U.S. for several years under assumed names to avoid North Korean assassins before eventually returning to South Korea in 1999.

• North Korea's Response: The North Korean government predictably claimed the couple had defected voluntarily for the money and were "kidnapped" by the West.

• The Deaths of the Protagonists: * Shin Sang-ok passed away in 2006 at the age of 79.

  • Choi Eun-hee passed away in 2018 at the age of 91.

• Current Status: The incident remains a cornerstone of North Korean human rights discussions. The recordings Choi made are still some of the only high-quality audio files of Kim Jong Il speaking candidly about his use of state-sponsored kidnapping as a policy tool.

Fun Fact: Despite the trauma, Shin later admitted that Kim Jong Il was "the kind of producer every director dreams of," simply because he provided unlimited resources—provided you didn't mind being a prisoner.

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