SEOUL • South Korean prosecutors pushed ahead on Tuesday with embezzlement charges against the former director of Asia's top film festival, despite widespread criticism that the allegations are politically motivated.

The future of South Korea's Busan International Film Festival has been threatened by a bitter dispute which organisers say is rooted in political anger at the screening of a film that was critical of the government's handling of the Sewol ferry disaster.

Mr Lee Yong Kwan, the festival's artistic director for five years before he was forced to step down in February, is accused of making fraudulent payments amounting to 27.5 million won (S$32,210) to a firm that brokers sponsorship deals.

Three other former and current senior festival officials were also formally charged on Tuesday.

"We are seeking to punish those who squandered the funds for the festival... without discretion," Yonhap News Agency quoted chief investigator Song Sam Hyon as saying.

The prosecutors began an investigation last year at the request of Busan city council - a major festival sponsor and stakeholder.

The council and organisers crossed swords in 2014 over the premiere of the documentary Diving Bell (or The Truth Will Not Sink With Sewol).

The scathing, highly emotive film slammed Seoul's botched rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath of the ferry sinking in April 2014 in which more than 300 people died, most of them schoolchildren.

Busan mayor Suh Byung Soo, who serves as festival chairman, had deemed the film "too political".

The premiere went ahead after a barrage of protests from film- makers, but the festival organising committee subsequently became the target of a flurry of state probes and the festival received an unprecedented cut in state funding.

The row prompted a group of 100 prominent overseas cineastes - including the directors of the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals - to issue a rare open letter in February, condemning the "political pressure" on the Busan festival organisers.

South Korean film-makers have vowed to boycott this year's Busan festival, saying its artistic independence has been compromised.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE