Demand For 'The Interview' Is Shooting Up In North Korea And Its Government Is Freaking Out
Dec 27, 2014, 01:42 IST
REUTERS/Jason Lee North Koreans praising its leader Kim Jong UnMore and more North Koreans are becoming aware of the North Korea-mocking movie "The Interview," and the government is doing everything to block it from getting smuggled in to the country.
According to Free North Korea Radio, an online radio network made by North Korean defectors, demand for "The Interview" has been shooting up among North Koreans. It says people are willing to pay almost $50 a copy of the movie, which is 10X higher than what a regular South Korean TV show's DVD would cost in the black market.
In response, North Korea's State Security Department and The Ministry of People's Security held an emergency meeting recently, and told its officers to make sure the movie doesn't make it into the country under any circumstances.
The report says the North Korean government has beefed up its border security inspection level, and even told black market dealers to not bring in any kind of US movie for the time being.
It's not too hard to see why North Korea is so freaked out by the possibility of "The Interview" reaching its people. The movie makes a blatant mockery of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - who dies at the end - and breaks the government's narrative of portraying him as an almighty God.
In fact, Rich Klein of the advisory firm McLarty Associates says that "The Interview" could become "a very real challenge to the ruling regime's legitimacy." He writes in the Washington Post:
"Think of the movie as Chernobyl for the digital age. Just as the nuclear catastrophe in the Soviet Union and the dangerously clumsy efforts to hide it exposed the Kremlin's leadership as inept and morally bankrupt, overseeing a superpower rusting from the inside, so does The Interview risk eroding the myths, fabrications and bluster that keep the Kim dynasty in power."
But even with all the increased inspection, some lucky North Koreans may be able to see "The Interview" soon. North Korean defector and activist Park Sang Hak plans to send copies of "The Interview" to Pyongyang through 33-foot hydrogen balloons as soon as the film becomes available on DVD.