U.S. film on N.K. leader to hit screens

A controversial American movie on an assassination plot targeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hit the screens in 63 countries starting late next month, a U.S. news report said Friday.

The comedy, titled “The Interview,” will be released in the U.S. and Canada on Dec. 25 before hitting the screens in European, Middle Eastern and African countries early next year, the Washington-based Voice of America said, citing the movie‘s distributor Sony Pictures.

South Korea was not mentioned among the 63 countries to screen the film.

The movie had originally been scheduled to be released in October, but the release date was postponed in August without explanation.

The flick tells the story of American journalists who land an interview with Kim in Pyongyang but are then recruited by the CIA to kill him.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry has bitterly denounced the film as “the most undisguised terrorism,” warning “a strong and merciless countermeasure.”

In August, Sony Pictures was reported to have decided to make some alterations, including removing some images of the North‘s leader and his late father from the movie.

Following the report of the release, the North on Friday resumed its attack on the film, warning of merciless punishment.

“The plot to screen the film embellished with complete distortion of reality and bizarre imagination is an act of evil provocation on our republic and an unbearable insult to our people,” the North’s propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, said. “The U.S. is an evil empire that deserves divine punishment.” (Yonhap)