North Korea is notorious for its belligerent pronouncements on what it sees as the imperialist thuggery of the United States, and for threats of its imminent fiery destruction of South Korea and Japan.
Now the world’s only totalitarian dictatorship has turned to television criticism, with an excoriating and unexpected attack on a forthcoming British drama series.
The National Defence Commission (NDC), the highest organ of the state, predicted that Britain faced “disgrace and self-destruction” over a forthcoming Channel 4 thriller series about an international crisis centred on North Korea. In characteristically blunt language, it has demanded that the British authorities “throw reactionary movies into a dumping ground” or face unspecified consequences.
The cause of this outrage is Opposite Number, a ten-part thriller by the British playwright Matt Charman, which was announced last month by Channel 4. It tells the story of a British nuclear scientist taken prisoner in North Korea, and the efforts of the UK and US governments to prevent Pyongyang extracting from him their nuclear secrets.
Normally such a project, which still lacks a cast and final funding, would attract little attention — but in Pyongyang it has caused unexpected outrage at the very highest level.
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“The movie is nothing but a conspiratorial charade intended to give the impression that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] nuclear treasured sword for self-defence was manufactured by ‘illegally acquiring’ nuclear technology from Britain,” a statement by the NDC spluttered. “No matter how desperately the producers of the above-said TV channel — hooligans and rogues under the guise of artistes — may work to falsify the reality, they can never hide the truth.”
The NDC is headed by the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, and the statement leaves no doubt that it holds David Cameron ultimately responsible for the work of the film-makers. “The gravity of the situation lies in that this despicable burlesque is being orchestrated at the tacit connivance, patronage and instigation by ‘Downing Street’,” the statement, carried by the state news agency, added.
It comes two months after a North Korea spokesman — albeit a much lower level — spoke out against The Interview, a US comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco about an inept plot to assassinate Mr Kim. In North Korean eyes, Channel 4’s planned drama is a feeble British attempt to copy this earlier ploy by Hollywood. “It is not exaggeration to say that Britain is the country with inborn disposition of blindly copying the American-style diplomacy,” the NDC said. “Reckless anti-DPRK hysteria would only bring disgrace and self-estruction. The British authorities should throw reactionary movies now being planned or in the process of production into a dumping ground without delay and punish the chief culprits.”
The statement ended on an ominous note: “Britain would be well advised to judge itself what consequences would be entailed if it ignores the DPRK’s warning.”