North Korea filed a complaint with the United Nations over an upcoming American comedy, “The Interview,” in which the characters plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam said the U.S. was committing an “act of war” and encouraging terrorism by allowing the film’s production in a June 27 letter to the United Nations made public this week.
{mosads}The letter didn’t explicitly identify the film’s name, but said it “involves insulting and assassinating the supreme leadership.”
In “The Interview,” actors James Franco and Seth Rogen portray celebrity journalists who land an interview with North Korea’s leader but are then recruited by the CIA as assassins.
“To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war,” Ja wrote, according to Reuters, which saw the letter.
“The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism,” he continued.
In late June, an official for North Korea’s foreign ministry warned about similar consequences for making the film, which is scheduled to hit theaters in October.
Rogen tweeted after the government’s initial warning “People don’t usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they’ve paid 12 bucks for it.”