North Korea files complaint to UN over Seth Rogen and James Franco’s Kim Jong-un assassination movie

North Korea's UN Ambassador said the film 'should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism'

The Interview, starring James Franco (L) and Seth Rogen (R), has been described as 'an act of war' (Christopher Polk/Getty)

North Korea has lodged a complaint with the United Nations about a controversial forthcoming film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, accusing the United States of sponsoring terrorism and committing an act of war by allowing production of a movie about a plot to kill its leader, Kim Jong Un.

The Interview – due for release on 14 October – tells the story of two journalists who land an interview with Kim Jong Un, and are then ordered by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader.

According to Reuters, the letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from North Korea's UN Ambassador Ja Song Nam, dated 27 June but made public this week, does not mention the name of the movie but talks about a plot that “involves insulting and assassinating the supreme leadership.”

“To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war,” Ja said.

“The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism,” he wrote.

In that article, it was stated: “The act of making and screening such a movie that portrays an attack on our top leadership... is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable.”

Actor Rogen said on Twitter the same day: “People don't usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they've paid 12 bucks for it.”

Additional reporting by Reuters