North Korea has been unhappy with its depiction in Western entertainment this summer, calling the movie The Interview “an act of war,” and begging China to stop the spread of a Kim Jong Un dance video. Now, Variety reports, that the North Korean government is condemning a British T.V. series, saying that it “slanders” the country.
The series, “The Opposite Number,” follows a British nuclear scientist taken prisoner by the North Koreans.
The show’s apparent insinuation that North Korea was unable to develop nuclear weapons on its own stung Pyongyang.
The North Korean National Defense Commission released an official statement calling the show “a conspiratorial charade painting a wrong picture” and reiterating that their nuclear weapons, “the treasured sword for self-defense,” were developed using their “own efforts, technology and resources from A to Z.”
In the statement acquired by Variety, North Korea says that the show “is based on a sheer lie intended to give the impression that [North Korea’s] nuclear treasured sword for self-defense was manufactured by ‘illegally acquiring’ nuclear technology from Britain.”
They clearly think little of the show’s producers, who they call “hooligans” and “rogues” and believe that the British government is really behind the series.
“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 reads.
“This mud-slinging is a premeditated politically motivated provocation and deliberate hostile act to hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership and tarnish the sovereign authority of [North Korea] and its international image,” it continued, before urging British authorities to cancel the series and “punish the culprits.”
It seems that not only does North Korea not understand free speech, it may have difficulty distinguishing between fact and fiction.
