TODAY IN HISTORY: Ex-husband and wife kidnapped, forced to make movies in North Korea
Eleven days after being abducted in Hong Kong, South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee (left) unwillingly arrived at her destination on January 22, 1978.
Choi, one of the biggest names in South Korean cinema, had been kidnapped on the orders of Kim Jong-Il, the son of the dictator of North Korea.
While in captivity, Choi was housed in a luxury villa and shown around Pyongyang.
All the while, nobody in her home country had any idea what happened to Choi.
One of the suspects in her disappearance was her ex-husband, Shin Sang-ok (right).
Shin, an acclaimed director, had divorced Choi two years earlier.
But worried about his ex-wife, Shin went to Hong Kong in the hopes of finding out what happened to her.
In this photo he is seen at a press conference in Hong Kong appealing for information about the disappearance of Choi.
Shin had not realised he had walked into a trap. Kim had ordered the abduction of Choi in the hopes of also kidnapping Shin.
Once in North Korea, he was a less cooperative captive than his ex-wife.
After two escape attempts he was put in a concentration camp for "re-education".
It was not until five years after his abduction that he was reintroduced to Choi.
Neither of them knew the other one had been captured up until that point.
Allowed to go to Austria for a film festival in 1986, Choi and Shin then planned their escape.
When their bodyguards weren't looking, they slipped into a taxi and made a mad dash to the US embassy.
They were chased through traffic by the bodyguards, but got to safety and were able to defect to the United States.
They initially lived covertly in the US with Kim under the impression they had been kidnapped by the Americans.
But Shin later found work in Hollywood directing under the name Simon Sheen.
He went on to direct 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up.
Choi and Shin remained married until his death in 2006. Choi died in 2018.
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