[Anchor]

As North Korea and Russia grow closer, cultural exchanges between the two nations are also becoming more frequent. In Russia, plans are underway to produce a film about North Korean troops taking part in the fighting in Kursk. However, an absurd situation has unfolded in which the face of a South Korean actor was used without authorization for the role of a North Korean soldier.

Reporter Kim Ayeong reports.

[Reporter]

This is a local movie trailer released on social media by an independent Russian broadcasting outlet.

Following a scene where an ordinary Russian man appears to be dragged away somewhere, a familiar voice is heard.

[Trailer for the movie 'Sudzha': "(That is not your war.) I'm needed there."]

The video then cuts to a soldier wearing a North Korean flag patch on his arm rescuing the Russian man.


This footage was presented on October 13, local time, by a production company participating in an evaluation for film production support by the Russian Ministry of Culture.

The film is set in the Sudzha area of Kursk, along the border between Russia and Ukraine.

It is intended to depict Russian and North Korean troops recapturing the area together, but absurdly, the person the production company put forward for the role of a North Korean soldier was a South Korean actor.

The actor in question never agreed to appear in the film nor took part in it, but it was found that the Russian production company used artificial intelligence to produce the trailer without authorization based on an audition video.

Using a South Korean actor's face in a movie meant to highlight the brotherhood in arms between North Korea and Russia has created an absurd situation, which is also seen as a result of being completely oblivious to the political sensitivities of inter-Korean relations.

For North Korea, which claims the two Koreas are in a relationship of two hostile states, this is hardly a pleasant situation, and such clumsy missteps by the Russian side are not the first.

At the opening ceremony for the Tumen River road bridge between North Korea and Russia held on September 5, signs were spotted suggesting that Russian authorities had begun writing the country's name on a checkpoint sign using the South Korean spelling of Russia ("러시아") instead of the North Korean spelling ("로씨야") before stopping midway.

While alignment between North Korean and Russian authorities is accelerating, local understanding of Korean Peninsula issues has failed to keep pace, seemingly leading to a series of clumsy mishaps.

(Video Editing: Jeong Seong-hun, Video Source: Dozhd TV)