Why the movie ‘The Interview’ was so threatening to Kim Jong Un and the North Korean regime.

The Interview

You probably remember the release of the movie The Interview, the Seth Rogan and James Franco comedy about landing an exclusive interview with North Korea’s leader Kim Jung Un. Though a comedy, the film exposes realities about the god-like aura the dictator has surrounded himself with and how media is completely controlled by the state.

The tours of Pyongyang are carefully monitored and crafted to show visitors an artificial version of the real North Korea, pointing out the use of fake stores with fake fruit, a fact that has been reported by previous tourists and refugees. The movie parallels Vice’s episode, The Hermit Kingdom, which similarly was able to set up an “diplomatic event”, playing off Kim Jung Un’s love for basketball. In fact, Dave Skylark, Franco’s character in the movie, appears to be a creative reconstruction of Dennis Rodman, the former Chicago Bulls star whom Kim Jung Un was dying to meet.

The release of The Interview almost led to an international crisis. Kim Jung Un threatened war and had Sony’s servers hacked to prevent its release, claiming the film was an attack on the North Korean State. These efforts completely backfired and when the film was released it gave The Interview more publicity than it would have received otherwise. Additionally, by caring so much about the release of a movie in another country, Kim Jung Un exposed one of his greatest fears — that one movie can take down a regime.

War of Information

North Korea ranks dead last out of 197 countries when it comes to press freedom. The regime’s power is heavily reliant on propaganda and censorship aimed at convincing citizens that their standard of life is among the best in the world and that the rest of the world, especially the United States, are a constant military and cultural threat. That’s how the regime has led its 25 million citizens to believe that the Kim family is infallible. They crack down hard on people who are caught with illegal media. In late 2013, it was reported that the North Korean government executed 80 people in just one day for smuggling in illegal media. Why is the regime so intense about outside media reaching its citizens? For past socialist and communist regimes their downfall has been citizens realizing how horribly they were being treated and revolting. In North Korea, by controlling the information that reaches the public the regime leads everyone to believe that their living standard is excellent compared to the rest of the world, and North Koreans have nothing to compare it to because they have no access to outside information or media. This is how Kim Jong Un’s regime stays in power.

Things Are Starting to Change

The propaganda veil over the country is beginning to be lifted. North Koreans are starting to question things more. That’s because information from the outside world is pouring into North Korea more than ever before, and smugglers are finding new creative ways to sneak in western movies and TV shows to North Koreans. This is why smuggling outside TV shows, pamphlets, and films like The Interview is so important. Information is a tool that can make a huge impact in North Korea because it can open citizen’s eyes to what’s really going on in their country. And there are smugglers who are risking their lives to get this information into the hands and onto the screens of North Koreans.

“In North Korea a USB drive is like gold.” — Smuggler

Two days before the Interview’s online release Chinese traders carried in 20 copies of the movie into North Korea by hiding USB drives with the movie on them in their trucks.

One smuggling group stashes USB sticks in Chinese cargo trucks. Another passes USB’s from tourist boats that meet with fishermen in the middle of a river that’s right on the border of China and North Korea. Some tape bags of USB sticks inside of giant tires and float them across the river. More recently, a smuggling group called Fighters for a Free North Korea loaded up 35-foot balloons and floated them into North Korea with pamphlets, U.S. dollar bills and USB drives full of political material.

This has proven surprisingly effective because, although much of the country doesn’t have access to internet, around 74% of the population has access to a TV and 46% own DVD players. Most North Koreans also have these small portable video players that have USB and SD ports. The government legalized all of these media-viewing devices because they wanted everyone to be able to see the propaganda the government was putting out. The regime probably didn’t realize when they legalized portable DVD players that they’re the perfect tool for viewing smuggled content discreetly.

This is why films like The Interview are so essential to combating a totalitarian regime like the one in North Korea. Information is the most frightening thing to someone like Kim Jong Un because it threatens the entire narrative he has worked so hard make every North Korean believe from birth.