NORTH KOREA THREATENS “MERCILESS” RESPONSE TO UPCOMING U.S. COMEDY FLICK

Seth Rogen and James Franco star as two journalists in an upcoming blockbuster comedy titled ‘The Interview’, set to hit cinemas this spring. The film’s plot centres around a CIA-executed assassination attempt, through Rogen and Franco, on North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

The movie trailer sparked an incensed response from the totalitarian state on Wednesday.

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), released a statement issued by a representative from North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, branding the film as an ‘act of war’, ‘terrorism’, ‘reckless U.S. provocative insanity’ and labelling the film’s producers as ‘gangster-like scoundrels’.

“The act of making and screening such a movie  that portrays an attack on our top leadership… is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable,” the spokesman said, before giving warning of a ‘resolute and merciless response’ should the U.S. not ban the film.

A recently-interviewed executive for the Centre for North Korea-U.S. Peace, Kim Myong-chol, commented that “a film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the U.S. has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.

And let us not forget who killed Kennedy – Americans. In fact, President Obama should be careful in case the U.S. military wants to kill him as well.”

Like every other film that breaches the controversial domain, reviews are a mixed bag of uncertainty and distaste, but one only has to look at how a film like Team America, in which Americans mock and ridicule Kim Jong-il, garners one-liners and memorable scenes still popularly quoted today.