North Korea berates Obama over The Interview release

The Interview was released on Christmas Day, despite threats to movie-goers

North Korea has condemned US President Barack Obama over the release of the film The Interview, about a fictional plot to kill its leader Kim Jong-un.

TO WATCH FULL MOVIE CLICK HERE.

The National Defence Commission (NDC) also accused the US of shutting down North Korea's internet - and described Mr Obama as "reckless" and "a monkey".


Another internet shut-down was observed hours later, Chinese state media said.

Sony Pictures originally pulled the film after a cyber-attack and threats - a move criticised by Mr Obama.

He joined critics who had warned that freedom of expression was under threat if the movie was shelved.
Sony later reconsidered and released The Interview on Christmas Day.

The controversial film was shown in some US cinemas and is available online, with several hundred independent cinemas coming forward and offering to screen it.

However, larger theatres decided not to show the film.

'Righteous deed'

In a statement issued on Saturday, North Korea's NDC spokesman denounced the US for screening the "dishonest and reactionary movie hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK [North Korea] and agitating terrorism".

President Obama, the statement said, "is the chief culprit who forced the Sony Pictures Entertainment to indiscriminately distribute the movie", blackmailing cinemas in the US.

It added: "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest."
The NDC also accused also Washington of "groundlessly linking the unheard of hacking at the Sony Pictures Entertainment to the DPRK".

The Interview is a classic Hollywood romp involving two lads who go to a strange place and get seduced (in several senses).

And it is very funny. That's partly because it is also a very good political satire.
It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot - they second-guess his likes and dislikes.

Maybe he - and they - were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion.

That fear may explain the North Korean leadership's intemperate, deeply racist language. It's not the first time, it has called President Obama a monkey.

TO WATCH FULL MOVIE CLICK HERE.