Famed South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee, who was abducted by North Korean spies in Hong Kong for film fan Kim Jong-il, dies aged 91
Choi Eun-hee was the doyenne of South Korean cinema – until she and her ex-husband, the director Shin Sang-ok, were held for eight years by North Korea
South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee, who once escaped North Korea with her ex-husband, the film director Shin Sang-ok, after they were each kidnapped on the orders of Kim Jong-il in 1978, has died aged 91 after an illness.
Choi was born in Gyeonggi Province in 1926 and made her stage debut in 1942. Five years later she made her screen debut before going on to become one of the country’s biggest film stars in the 1960s.
Her celebrity caught the attention of Kim Jong-il, the son of then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. His father’s minister of propaganda and a film fanatic, Kim Jong-il ordered Choi’s abduction from Hong Kong, starting an eight-year ordeal that would only end after she and Shin made a dramatic escape.
By the late 1970s, Choi’s career had hit a downturn, according to author Paul Fischer, who interviewed her for his book A Kim Jong-il Production.
She had divorced Shin, who had moved on to a new family, and the Shin Film company, which she had established with him, was in bankruptcy after South Korea’s repressive government revoked its film licence.
