Born in the Korean city of Gwangju in 1926, the former leading lady starred in around 130 films throughout her long career, including over a dozen while held captive in North Korea.
She wrote an autobiographical book called “Confessions of Choi Eun-hee” published in 2007.
Choi was kidnapped in early 1978 by North Korean agents from Hong Kong’s high-end beach neighborhood Repulse Bay, before being taken to Pyongyang.
Her husband, director Shin Sang-ok, was also snatched six months later, also while in Hong Kong, as he searched for information about what happened to Choi.
The actress told CNN that North Korea’s then leader, Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, confided that she was his favorite actress, and that’s why he had brought her to North Korea.
In North Korea, the pair were forced by Kim to help him revamp the country’s film industry.
The late North Korean leader was a noted film aficionado, and oversaw the country’s movie studio at the time of Choi’s abduction, in his role as head of the country’s ministry for culture and propaganda.
Body of work
In 1985 she won the “Best Actress” award at the Moscow Film Festival for her role in “Salt,” produced in North Korea.
Both she and Shin have said Kim “was the best producer a director can ask for,” mainly for financing their movies in Pyongyang.
Secret tape supplied by Choi revealed Kim’s character
With a hidden micro-casette recorder, the couple recorded some of their meetings with the movie-obsessed former leader.
Kim is heard apologizing to them for the kidnapping technique, promising money and resources for the film industry, and complaining about the quality of the movies his country has been producing.
On a more personal note, according to Choi, he made fun of his diminutive stature when he first met her.
“Look at me,” she said he told her. “Aren’t I small,” and then made a crude self-deprecating comparison.
Other abductions
Defectors and former kidnap victims themselves, including Choi and former US army deserter Charles Robert Jenkins, have written of meeting many other abductees, including victims from China, the Middle East and Europe.
North Korean agents are suspected of abducting at least 17, and possibly more than 100, Japanese citizens, snatching them off streets and beaches and smuggling them to North Korea.
While Tokyo only officially recognizes 17 victims, and North Korea has only admitted to taking 13, an independent commission has identified dozens more, including 15 since the turn of the century.
More than a dozen people remain missing, presumed kidnapped, and the issue remains highly charged in Japan today.
During a visit to Japan last year, Trump said it “would be a tremendous signal if Kim Jong Un would send them back.”
CNN’s James Griffiths, Joshua Berlinger, Yoonjung Seo, Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd contributed to this report.
Source : Nbcnewyork