SEOUL • The setting is North Korea. The day is Christmas in an unspecified near future. The notorious hermit kingdom has collapsed from a coup d'etat.

This is the premise of upcoming film Steel Rain, set to hit South Korean theatres in December.

It stars actor Jung Woo Sung as a North Korean agent who flees to South Korea with the North's leader to escape the uprising.

The film is written and directed by Yang Woo Seok, who previously helmed The Attorney, an award-winning 2014 box-office hit, inspired by late South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun.

Mr Roh had helped defend students - accused of being North Korean sympathisers - when he was a lawyer in the early 1980s.

Several North Korea-themed thrillers have also vied for box-office supremacy recently.

V.I.P, released last month, depicts the South Korean government's struggle over how to deal with a North Korean serial killer.

In January, comedy-thriller Confidential Assignment saw Hyun Bin as a North Korean agent collaborating with South Korean police to catch a North Korean gang leader.

THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK