The Lovers and the Despot

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Shin Sang-ok:

(speaking Korean on tape)

(muffled cheering)

(siren wailing)

(Indistinct chatter)

Spokesman:
Ladies and

gentlemen of the press...

Man:
Out of the way!

Come on, down.

Give somebody else a break.

Spokesman:

I have been provided

with the following

background information.

Mr. Shin and Miss Choi are both

nationals of South Korea

and are married.

Mr. Shin was

a well-known director

and Miss Choi

a famous actress

in the South Korean

film industry.

Some eight years ago, Miss Choi

appeared in North Korea

after having been in Hong Kong.

Subsequently, Mr. Shin

travelled to Hong Kong

and later appeared

in North Korea.

Today's conference is held

at the request

of Mr. Shin and Miss Choi.

The Shin couple will have

an opening statement

after I have finished my...

Choi:
(speaking Korean)

(chuckles)

(indistinct chatter)

(applause)

(camera shutter clicks)

(applause)

Narrator:
Kim Jong-il's

leadership of Korea.

Mount Paektu,

the mountain that chimes

with the history

of the Korean revolution,

carries the great history

of the leadership of Korea

By Kim Jong-il.

Inheriting the qualities

of president Kim Il-sung,

a peerless hero of Korea,

and Kim Jong-suk,

a woman hero of the

anti-Japanese revolution,

Kim Jong-il has led

the Korean revolution

for several decades.

In the mid-1960s,

when the situation in Korea

and the world was complicated,

Kim Jong-il started working

at the central committee

of the workers' party of Korea,

the general staff

of the Korean revolution.

Whenever the us imperialists

resorted to high-handedness

with regard to Korea,

he'd put them to shame,

displaying the wisdom

and mettle of an

iron-willed commander.

(applause)

(cheering)

In the 1960s,

I was working

in a military-intelligence

organization in South Korea.

But I didn't have any connection

with the film business.

I was just in the audience.

My job was to interrogate

North Korean defectors

and arrest North Korean

espionage agents.

(cheering)

In the 1970s,

the North Korean Workers' Party

recognized Kim Jong-il

as his father's heir apparent.

So he started to build up

his own power base.

During that period, there was

a very severe power struggle,

to protect Kim Jong-il's power

and his succession to power

after his father.

Many, many people

were killed and purged.

(cheering)

All of them are brainwashed.

All of them are brainwashed.

But the interrogator's job

is to crack him.

To make him understand

the true story, the true facts,

of what's going on.

(man sings in Korean)

Choi:
(speaking Korean)

(chuckles)

Jeong-kyun:
(speaking Korean)

(speaking Korean)

(shouting)

Myung-yim:
(speaking Korean)

Interviewer:
Can you describe

what you heard on the tapes?

Because you told us before

that you have heard

Kim Jong-il's voice,

and not many people have.

I cannot do that.

Interviewer:
I know you can't

explain how you heard it,

but can you explain that

you knew they were real?

And that this was

really Kim Jong-il?

I cannot tell you

the circumstances.

Interviewer:
Yes, of course.

Okay, let's... Let's start.

Okay.

I mentioned five tapes

that were released

to the South Korean authorities

and I recognized

Kim Jong-il's voice.

(scratchy interference on tape)

Kim Jong-il:

(speaking Korean on tape)

(Kim's Jong-il's indistinct

speech on tape recorder)

Choi:
Okay.

(speaking Korean)

Mm.

(speaking Korean)

(speaking Korean)

(train whistle blows)

Choi Kyung-ok:

(speaking Korean)

Jeong-kyun:
(speaking Korean)

(groaning)

(speaking Korean)

Myung-yim:
(speaking Korean)

Choi:
(speaking Korean)

(indistinct chatter)

Iain T.A. Hall:

We received a phone call,

from the Furama Hotel,

that one of their guests had

left the hotel without paying,

in circumstances which

they were unfamiliar with.

I think it was a Sunday.

Just about to come off

my particular shift.

And because Hong Kong is

such a massive place

with so many people,

missing people, missing persons

cases, were, as you can imagine,

happening quite frequently.

But because this case

involved a foreign national,

i.e. not a local

Hong Kong person,

we had to pay

particular attention.

When we got to the hotel,

everything was in its place.

All her suitcases,

her personal belongings.

The bathroom had all

the cosmetics that you'd expect

from someone

who's staying there

and had no intention

of leaving in a hurry.

So we soon realized that

we were on to something here

which wasn't just

a missing person.

Why has she come to Hong Kong?

Who asked her?

Why was she there?

And why had she mysteriously

just disappeared,

as it would seem, off the face

of the Earth with no trace?

Jeong-kyun:
(speaking Korean)

Yi:
Choi was divorced...

with a big bank debt.

One Korean lady approached

Choi Eun-hee,

and she said, "Well, we have

a very rich person in Hong Kong.

She's also

in the film business."

Her name was Lee Sang-hee.

At the time, the South Korean

government didn't know,

Choi didn't know,

I didn't...

Nobody knew she was

a North Korean agent.

Choi:
(speaking Korean)

(ship horn blows)

(camera shutter clicks)

Jeong-kyun:
(speaking Korean)

Hall:
On the 30th February,

1978,

we searched Lee Sang-hee's

apartment at Queen's Road East.

It was quite revealing

what we found.

A used North Korean

airline ticket.

And also, a film script called

Woman Slave Ship,

which was one of Shin's

film scripts.

I remember the first time

I met Shin.

There was something

quite distinctive about him.

He had a bit of a swagger,

good-looking and very confident.

It's difficult

to articulate instinct,

but we felt there was

something about Shin

that didn't sit comfortably

with us.

His answers were

somewhat inconsistent,

and he appeared

to be very evasive.

He was quite clear that

he had nothing to do with it,

but wanted to have

police protection.

He felt that Choi had been

abducted by the North Koreans.

He was obviously

quite concerned

about what was going

to happen to him.

Yi:
Many different stories

spread.

Speculations.

Shin contacted Kim Kyu-hwa.

He was Shin's old friend

and business partner.

But Shin did not know...

he was also

a North Korean agent.

Choi:
(speaking Korean)

(projector whirs)

(film soundtrack plays)

(shouting)

(speaking Korean)

(speaking Korean)

(gunshot)

Choi:

Pierre Rissient:
I was in Hong

Kong for the film festival.

And because I had heard

about Shin Sang-ok,

I wanted to meet him

and to see some of his films.

I do not remember exactly

how it came about.

I remember that I found out

that he was at this hotel,

that I was surprised that

it was such a cheap hotel.

Clearly, he was not doing well.

From 1974,

the South Korean government

decided to stop his activities.

He was not authorized

to make films.

He was an outcast in Korea.

He had to try to find work

somewhere else.

(speaking Korean)

Jeong-kyun:
(speaking Korean)

Jang-ho:
(speaking Korean)

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