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Comment By Bloomberg News MailTribune.com By Bloomberg News Posted Dec. 9, 2014 at 11:00 AM By Bloomberg News Posted Dec. 9, 2014 at 11:00 AM » Social News SEOUL, South Korea — If a picture tells a thousand words in North Korea, a motion picture can tell much more. Even as the regime reacts with anger to a Hollywood movie depicting a plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un, it nurtures a home-grown movie industry fostered by his late father Kim Jong Il that churns out films to bolster the mystique and ultimate authority of the family. The ire over the U.S. comedy "The Interview" — which hackers who broke into Sony Pictures' computers have warned should not be shown — reflects a sensitivity to anything perceived as a threat to the cult of personality the reclusive regime has built around its leaders, in this case the possibility that copies of the film might find their way across the border from China. Filmmakers in North Korea have produced movies with themes ranging from a small-town girl dreaming of becoming a trapeze artist to a Godzilla creature allying with farmers to oppose a feudal governor, in a country that ranks among the lowest in freedom of expression. They also produce frequent "documentary films" portraying leaders as immaculate, omnipotent and benevolent, while children grow up watching animations depicting the United States as evil and vicious. "Because North Korea casts Kim as the pinnacle of its dignity and pride it's no wonder the regime is acting so violently toward 'The Interview'" which is due for U.S. release on Dec. 25, Seo Jeong-nam, a film professor who researches North Korean propaganda at Keimyung University in South Korea's Daegu city, said by phone. "The biggest headache for Kim is that a memory stick the size of a fingertip can now go into the country carrying a dozen foreign-made films," Seo said. "North Koreans watching films smuggled from China has become an irreversible trend and it undercuts the cult of personality Kim needs desperately to consolidate his power." Kim, believed to be about 30, was unveiled to the 24 million people of his nation a little more than a year before his father died in late 2011. That gave him less political leverage than Kim Jong Il, who had been groomed for about two decades before Kim Il Sung died in 1994. Since being named "Supreme Leader," Kim Jong Un has tightened his grip on power by executing his uncle Jang Song Thaek. He has also executed other officials, including some for watching South Korean soap operas, South Korean lawmakers who attended a National Intelligence Service briefing said in October. North Korea's official media, including the Korean Central News Agency, maintains a stream of daily propaganda praising Kim and serves as the outlet for threats of military provocations against the likes of the U.S. and South Korea. Kim is a fan of some western culture. In 2012, state television showed him with a crew of clapping generals watching a performance by a band dressed as Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Minnie Mouse and other characters. The nation put on an international film festival in Pyongyang in September. Still, earlier this year North Korea wrote to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling the film starring Seth Rogen an "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism" and to the U.S. government asking it to block the release. Its reaction to the movie trailer raised suspicion that hackers associated with the regime may be behind a Sony breach that involved the leaking of thousands of documents, including details of executive pay. While North Korea denounces the film, its own multimedia agency has produced YouTube videos showing President Barack Obama, U.S. troops and Manhattan in flames over the years. Children in North Korea grow up watching animations depicting Americans as wolves while movies produced under Kim Jong Il starred U.S. defectors playing evil imperialists, including former U.S. Army soldier Charles Jenkins who lived there from 1965 to 2004. North Korea considers movies "its most powerful weapon in revolutionizing" people, according to the website of the government-affiliated Information Center on North Korea in Seoul. Movies were effective in educating the public during the founding of the country when much of the population was illiterate, Seo said. While Kim Jong Un is a known basketball enthusiast who invited former NBA star Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang, his father kidnapped a renowned South Korean movie director and an actress in 1978 to fuel his zeal for films. Shin Sang Ok and his wife Choi Eun Hee produced a series of films before fleeing while on a trip to Austria in 1986. One Shin film from the time was the giant-monster flick "Pulgasari." North Korea's film industry took a hit during the 1990s when the country suffered a famine estimated to have killed millions of people, the Information Center on North Korea said. Since 2000, many films have dealt with Kim Jong Il's songun, or military-first, policy, the philosophy behind North Korea's three nuclear tests since 2006. "Every stage of filmmaking from planning to script writing to screening is controlled by the state in North Korea," Seo said. "One unchanging theme is that evil is always outside. Yet truth has been seeping into North Korea over the last 20 years and that keeps Kim on edge." By Bloomberg News MailTribune.com By Bloomberg News Posted Dec. 9, 2014 at 11:00 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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