Choi Eun-hee was one of South Korea's biggest film stars of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978 she traveled to Hong Kong to meet a supposed businessman about a new film company. "In Hong Kong, Choi was abducted and taken to North Korea by the order of Kim Jong Il." Her ex-husband, director Shin Sang-ok, was abducted soon after while searching for her.
In North Korea the two were remarried "at Kim's recommendation" and made to make films, including 1985's Salt, "for which Choi won best actress at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival." Choi later said the couple was able to make "films with artistic values, instead of just propaganda films extolling the regime," but "that she could not forgive Kim for kidnapping her."
They escaped in 1986 during a trip to Vienna, fleeing to the United States embassy to request asylum. They lived in the United States for a decade and returned to South Korea in 1999.
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