(CNN) South Korean film legend Choi Eun-hee, who was once abducted and forced to make movies for the North Korean regime, has died. She was 91. 
 
 Born in the Korean city of Gwangju in 1926, the former leading lady starred in around 130 films throughout her long career, including over a dozen while held captive in North Korea. 
 
 She wrote an autobiographical book called "Confessions of Choi Eun-hee" published in 2007. 
 
 Abducted, forced to make movies 
 
 Choi was kidnapped in early 1978 by North Korean agents from Hong Kong's high-end beach neighborhood Repulse Bay, before being taken to Pyongyang. 
 
 Her husband, director Shin Sang-ok, was also snatched six months later, also while in Hong Kong, as he searched for information about what happened to Choi. 
 
 Am undated picture showing Choi Eun-hee and her husband Shin Sang-ok. 
 
 The actress told CNN that North Korea's then leader, Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, confided that she was his favorite actress, and that's why he had brought her to North Korea. 
 
 In North Korea, the pair were forced by Kim to help him revamp the country's film industry. 
 
 The late North Korean leader was a noted film aficionado, and oversaw the country's movie studio at the time of Choi's abduction, in his role as head of the country's ministry for culture and propaganda. 
 
 Body of work 
 
 In 1985 she won the "Best Actress" award at the Moscow Film Festival for her role in "Salt," produced in North Korea. 
 
 Both she and Shin have said Kim "was the best producer a director can ask for," mainly for financing their movies in Pyongyang. 
 
 After eight years the pair escaped captivity while in Vienna for a film festival, fleeing to the US embassy and, after ten years in the US, back to South Korea. 
 
 Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok pictured in "The Lovers and the Despot," a Magnolia Pictures release. 
 
 Secret tape supplied by Choi revealed Kim's character 
 
 With a hidden micro-casette recorder, the couple recorded some of their meetings with the movie-obsessed former leader. 
 
 Kim is heard apologizing to them for the kidnapping technique, promising money and resources for the film industry, and complaining about the quality of the movies his country has been producing. 
 
 On a more personal note, according to Choi, he made fun of his diminutive stature when he first met her. 
 
 "Look at me," she said he told her. "Aren't I small," and then made a crude self-deprecating comparison. 
 
 Shin and Choi both described Kim as someone who micromanaged everything, according to Paul Fischer, who wrote a book, " A Kim Jong Il production ," about the kidnapping. 
 
 A portrait of South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee on a mourning altar at a hospital in Seoul. 
 
 Other abductions 
 
 Defectors and former kidnap victims themselves, including Choi and former US army deserter Charles Robert Jenkins, have written of meeting many other abductees, including victims from China, the Middle East and Europe. 
 
 North Korean agents are suspected of abducting at least 17, and possibly more than 100, Japanese citizens, snatching them off streets and beaches and smuggling them to North Korea. 
 
 While Tokyo only officially recognizes 17 victims, and North Korea has only admitted to taking 13, an independent commission has identified dozens more, including 15 since the turn of the century. 
 
 Tokyo has expressed hope that the issue of abductees be tabled during upcoming talks between the leaders of the two Koreas, and in a mooted summit with US President Donald Trump. 
 
 More than a dozen people remain missing, presumed kidnapped, and the issue remains highly charged in Japan today. 
 
 During a visit to Japan last year, Trump said it "would be a tremendous signal if Kim Jong Un would send them back." ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Ms Choi was one of South Korea's most famous actresses during the peak of her popularity 
 
 A South Korean actress, once kidnapped by North Korea and forced to make films for the state, has died at 91. 
 
 Choi Eun-hee was a leading actress in the South when she was kidnapped on the orders of then leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-il in the late 1970s. 
 
 Her ex-husband, a famous film director, was also abducted several months later. The duo later escaped. 
 
 North Korea has always denied abducting the couple, saying they had sought sanctuary there. 
 
 Ms Choi died on Monday afternoon in hospital in South Korea. 
 
 "My mother passed when she went to hospital for kidney dialysis this afternoon," Ms Choi's eldest son, director Shin Jeong-gyun, told news outlet Yonhap. 
 
 The kidnapping and a film buff 
 
 Born in November 1926 in South Korea's Gyeonggi province, Ms Choi began her film career in 1947. 
 
 She and her then-husband Shin Sang-ok eventually rose to be among South Korea's most celebrated film directors and stars. 
 
 Image copyright BBC / Hellflower films / Shin Films Foundation Image caption This still of Ms Choi and Mr Shin is taken from a film about the couple, titled "The Lovers and the Despot" 
 
 But by the late 1970s, the couple had divorced and Choi's career had hit a downturn. 
 
 It was during that time that Choi was approached by someone posing as a Hong Kong businessman with a proposal to form a film-making company which would revive her fortunes. 
 
 According to a book "A Kim Jong-il Production", she was persuaded to go to Hong Kong. Once in Hong Kong, she was grabbed and sedated by a group of men. 
 
 Eight days later she was in Pyongyang in a luxurious villa that was constantly guarded. 
 
 Despite being divorced, Mr Shin and his ex-wife had remained close and he went to Hong Kong to look for her. He too was later abducted. 
 
 Image copyright BBC / Hellflower films / Shin Films Foundation Image caption Mr Shin and Ms Choi are shown here with Kim Jong-il (centre) 
 
 The late Mr Kim, who ruled North Korea from his father's death in 1994 until his own in 2011, was said to be a great film buff, and an avid watcher of Hollywood movies. 
 
 He had hoped that the couple's presence in the North could help their film industry compete on the international stage. After eight years, the couple won Mr Kim's trust and were allowed to travel to Vienna to promote their films. 
 
 While in Vienna, the duo sought political asylum at the US embassy. They returned to South Korea years later and Mr Shin died in 2006. 
 
 The outlandish tale has gone on to grip audiences across the globe. In 2016, a film titled "The Lovers and the Despot" premiered, following the life of the couple as they were kidnapped and taken to North Korea. 
 
 'Gone but never forgotten' 
 
 Ms Choi's passing has been widely mourned across South Korea. 
 
 "I went to see her movie when I was in high school," said 82-year-old actress Um Aing-ran. "After seeing her acting I decided to become an actress." 
 
 Other social media users also remembered her. 
 
 "You were such a beauty. You really had a rough life, you are gone now but your passion for acting will never be forgotten," said one user on Naver. "I hope you reunited with Mr Shin and be happy." 
 
 "We say there is no life without a story. But her life was so dramatic," said another Naver user. "I [will] remember your elegance. Rest in peace." 
 
 Ms Choi's funeral will be held on Thursday in Seoul. ||||| SEOUL, April 16 (Yohap) -- Choi Eun-hee, an iconic movie star of the '60s and '70s, died as a result of a chronic disease at age 92 on Monday, her family have said. 
 
 "My mother passed away when she went to hospital for kidney dialysis this afternoon," Choi's eldest son, director Shin Jeong-gyun, told Yonhap News Agency by phone. 
 
 Born in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, in 1926, she began her film career in 1947 in the movie "A New Oath." She later rose to stardom for her lead roles in "The Sun Of Night" (1948) and "A Hometown in Heart" (1949) and became one of the three most celebrated actresses of her time, along with Kim Ji-mi and Um Aing-ran. 
 
 This file photo shows actress Choi Eun-hee. (Yonhap) 
 
 In 1954, Choi married Shin Sang-ok, a leading film director. Together, they established Shin Film and made many films that led the heyday of the Korean film industry in the '60s and '70s. 
 
 She established her position as a great movie star while appearing in about 130 movies directed by Shin, such as "The Houseguest and My Mother" (1961) and "Red Scarf" (1964), until their joint career ended in divorce in 1978. 
 
 Whilst on a business trip to Hong Kong later that year, Choi was kidnapped by a North Korean secret agent and taken to North Korea. She was forced to make films for the North together with her estranged husband who was abducted a year later. She won the best actress in the Moscow Film Festival in 1985 for "Sault," which she made together with Shin, becoming the first Korean to claim an award at an overseas film festival. 
 
 This file photo shows late movie director Shin Sang-sok (L) and his estranged wife and late actress Choi Eun-hee. (Yonhap) 
 
 But in 1986, the two escaped from North Korea to the United States. After over 10 years in exile, they permanently returned home in 1999. 
 
 In 2001, Choi became president of a theater company and produced a stage musical the next year. In 2007, she published her autobiography, "Confessions." 
 
 
 
 After her ex-husband Shin passed away in 2006, her health deteriorated quickly. She had been receiving kidney dialysis three times a week until her death, according to her family. 
 
 She was survived by two sons and two daughters. 
 
 sshim@yna.co.kr 
 
 (END) ||||| SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea hates the currently scrapped Hollywood film that revolves around the assassination of its beloved leader, but the country has had a long love affair with cinema — of its own particular styling. 
 
 FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2013 file photo, North Koreans ride on an amusement park ride while watching a 3D movie at the Rungna People's Pleasure Park in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea hates the Hollywood... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 20, 2013 file photo, movie DVD and VCD disks are arranged on a shelf at a store in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea hates the Hollywood film that revolves around the assassination... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this file image made out of film "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" released on Oct. 3, 2012 by Busan International Film Festival, Comrade Kim Yong Mi played by Han Jong Sim smiles as she wears a coal... (Associated Press) 
 
 In the six decades since North Korea began to cultivate its own film industry, there have been a kidnapped South Korean director and his movie star wife, a Godzilla-inspired monster movie that flopped in the South, American defectors hamming it up in anti-U.S. propaganda films — and even a foray into "girl power" cinema with the more recent "Comrade Kim Goes Flying." 
 
 The U.S. blames North Korea for a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, which produced "The Interview," and also for threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters. Sony canceled the movie's release. North Korea has denied a role in the hack, but also praised it as a "righteous deed." 
 
 Pyongyang began building its cinema industry in the 1950s as a wing of a propaganda machine meant to glorify the country's late founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. The elder Kim once declared movies to be the most important tool to educate the masses, according to archive material maintained by the South Korean government. 
 
 North Korean moviemakers have since dabbled with science fiction, action and romantic comedy, but they're mostly expected to stoke public animosity against rivals Washington and Seoul, and to portray the Kim family as a fearless bastion against evil foreign imperialists. 
 
 North Korea's progress in filmmaking technology has been slow, especially when compared to a South Korean film industry that's the envy of Asia. 
 
 The country's relative isolation means North Korean filmmakers rarely get the opportunity to work with foreign artists. A notable exception was "Comrade Kim goes Flying," a romantic comedy from 2012 about a young female coal miner who dreams of becoming a trapeze artist. The movie was co-produced with Western partners. 
 
 The 1980s were a heyday for North Korean movies. The current leader's father, Kim Jong Il, was an ardent movie buff and ensured generous funding for filmmakers. 
 
 When Kim soured on the quality of films produced by his countrymen, he ordered the abduction of South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his then-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, in 1978, Shin said after he escaped the North in 1986. 
 
 Shin shook the North Korean movie scene with his entertainment-focused works. They included 1984's "Love, Love, My Love," responsible for the first on-screen kiss in North Korean films, and "Runaway," an action film released the same year that included an exploding train, according to a South Korean government website. 
 
 Shin and Choi managed to escape during a business trip to Vienna in 1986, a year after Shin completed "Pulgasari," a science-fiction film inspired by Japan's iconic "Godzilla" series. Pulgasari, which features an actor waddling around in a padded monster suit, flopped when it was released in South Korea in 2000 during a period of warmer relations between the rivals. 
 
 North Korea has long shown American characters in its movies as villains, sometimes played by North Koreans in makeup, but also by actual Americans who defected to the North in the 1960s. Four such Americans appeared together as evil capitalists and military officials in "Nameless Heroes," a 20-part propaganda film series filmed between 1979 and 1981, according to the South Korean government website.
– Choi Eun-hee led a fascinating life—even before the actress was kidnapped by North Korean agents and forced to make films for the state. A film icon, Choi died Monday at a South Korean hospital, where she was receiving dialysis, her son tells Yonhap News. She was 91. Beginning her film career in 1947's A New Oath, Choi became one of South Korea's leading actresses in the 1950s and '60s and one of the country's first female directors, reports Screen Daily. By 1976, she'd appeared in more than 130 films, and apparently caught the eye of future North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. That year, while in Hong Kong, Choi was kidnapped by agents working for Kim, who believed she could help elevate North Korea's film industry, reports the BBC. Months later, Choi's ex-husband, director Shin Sang-ok, was also kidnapped when he went to Hong Kong to look for her. Reunited at a party, the pair eventually made 17 films in North Korea, including 1985's Salt, for which Choi took home the best actress award at the Moscow Film Festival, per Screen Daily. But though she was the first Korean to receive such an honor, Choi wasn't happy living under guard. While promoting a movie in Vienna in March 1986, Choi and Shin sought asylum at the US embassy. The pair—who would spend more than a decade in the US before returning to South Korea in 1999—would later reveal secret recordings in which Kim apologized for the kidnapping scheme, per CNN. But to this day, North Korea claims the pair sought refuge in the country, per the BBC.