[Sportschosun Reporter Jo Min-jung] As the dispute over historical distortion surrounding the film "Assassin(s)" continues, Korean history instructor Hwang Hyun-pil has joined the debate for a second consecutive day. After criticizing the "left-wing film" framing surrounding the work the previous day, he directly challenged on the 29th the issue of "North Korea's apology" raised by Jang Dong-hyuk, leader of the People Power Party.
On the 29th, Hwang Hyun-pil posted a lengthy statement on social media, addressing in turn the historical interpretations surrounding the Mun Se-gwang incident and recent remarks from political figures.
He first rejected the view that "Assassin(s)" is simply a conspiracy-theory film. The 1974 shooting of First Lady Yuk Young-soo was an incident that had prompted various questions from the outset, he explained. The film builds its narrative on those questions while adding fictional characters and dramatization.
Hwang said he had rebutted various distortion claims surrounding the May 18 Democratization Movement on the basis of historical records. He argued that anyone seeking to deny the suspicions surrounding the Mun Se-gwang incident must present relevant evidence and establish the facts.
The passage that went further than the previous day’s remarks directly targeted Jang Dong-hyuk.
Jang recently strongly criticized the film for portraying former President Park Chung Hee and the regime at the time as if they were behind the incident. He also said that North Korea had apologized in the past in connection with the incident.
Hwang countered that this account was factually incorrect. In 2002, when Park Geun-hye, then leader of the Korea Future Union, visited North Korea and met with Kim Jong Il, the apology that was mentioned concerned the 1968 January 21 Incident. According to Hwang, there was no direct apology for the shooting of Yuk Young-soo.
He particularly cited the fact that former President Park Geun-hye had never said she received an apology from Kim Jong Il regarding the Mun Se-gwang incident.
Hwang took the position that although Japanese media reports interpreted the remarks as an apology for the shooting of Yuk Young-soo, the account cannot readily be accepted as fact when the actual conversation and Park's later explanation are considered together. He also pointed out that Jang should reexamine the historical basis for definitively calling it "the incident North Korea apologized for."
Hwang also said he would publicly acknowledge it if information he had misunderstood were confirmed. Conversely, he argued that if a politician conveyed a message to the public based on inaccurate information, that politician should also correct it responsibly.
The dispute surrounding "Assassin(s)" has recently spread rapidly across political circles, the historical community and online communities. The film takes the 1974 shooting of Yuk Young-soo as its motif and cinematically reconstructs the actions of the regime at the time, intelligence agencies and journalists. As actual history and cinematic imagination become intertwined, some have criticized the film for historical distortion.
The production team has maintained that the film is not intended to impose a particular historical conclusion or reproduce the actual incident like a documentary. Rather, it is a dramatic film that adds imagination to the real event on which it is based.
Hwang had also raised concerns the previous day about the political labeling surrounding the film in a related video. After specifically rebutting Jang's remarks just one day later, the focus of the debate has expanded beyond the film itself to the historical interpretation and factual verification of the Mun Se-gwang incident.
Reporter Jo Min-jung mj.cho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
