North Korean movie about assassination attempt of late leader aired on TV
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People visiting the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. The film, Days And Nights Of Confrontation, depicts a plot to kill the latter.
PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING – North Korea has aired a new propaganda film on TV about a failed assassination attempt on the country’s supreme leader, with South Korean media describing it as an “unprecedented work addressing a taboo”.
The film, Days And Nights Of Confrontation, which had been screened at theatres in Pyongyang since 2025, was released for the first time on state-run Korean Central Television in January.
The latest piece depicting a plot to kill Mr Kim Jong Il, the late father of incumbent leader Kim Jong Un, by blowing up a train, is a sequel to the 2022 movie One Day, One Night, which was themed on an assassination attempt of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung, who is also the grandfather of the current leader.
The perpetrator of the plot to murder Mr Kim Jong Il is a son of the man who attempted to kill Mr Kim Il Sung. Both of the offenders are depicted as counter-revolutionary elements.
According to South Korean media, the new suspenseful thriller, which reportedly won three awards at the Pyongyang International Film Festival, features Hollywood-style action sequences, including train fights, car chases and explosions.
In 2024, the movie 72 hours, about lessons learnt from the Korean War, was released in North Korea. Mr Kim Jong Un was closely involved in the production of the film featuring violent action scenes and computer graphics. He reportedly wrote the script and directed the acting. KYODO NEWS


