N.K. films to be publicly screened in S. Korea for first time

BUCHEON, South Korea, July 10 (Yonhap) -- Nine North Korean films will be publicly shown at a South Korean film festival later this week amid the thaw in inter-Korean relations, the event's organizer said Tuesday.

"The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) mapped out a plan to hold a special screening of North Korean films in consideration of the mounting peace mood on the Korean Peninsula, and recently obtained a government permit to show them publicly," the BIFAN secretariat said.

In South Korea, the screening of North Korean films, or other video footage, is strictly limited under the law, with only persons who go through complicated government procedures permitted access to them. Therefore, the public screening of North Korean movies will be the first of its kind in the country.

The nine films, produced between the 1980s and 2016, consist of three-full-length and six short films, according to the secretariat, adding "The Story of Our Home," which won the best movie award at the Pyongyang International Film Festival in 2016, is among them.

The 10-day BIFAN will kick off Thursday in Bucheon, west of Seoul.

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