---
title: "South Korea’s Culture Minister Seeks Strict Policing After Protest at Actor’s Home"
description: "Choi Hwi-young said critics of a film on a 1974 shooting should sue in court rather than picket the home of the actor Yoo Hae-jin"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-05T06:48:53.167Z
modified: 2026-10-05T11:12:04Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/south-korea-s-culture-minister-seeks-strict-policing-after-p-3e808d
language: en
tags: ["politics", "law", "security", "history", "asia"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# South Korea’s Culture Minister Seeks Strict Policing After Protest at Actor’s Home

*Choi Hwi-young said critics of a film on a 1974 shooting should sue in court rather than picket the home of the actor Yoo Hae-jin*

By rews desk · October 5, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/south-korea-s-culture-minister-seeks-strict-policing-after-p-3e808d

## In brief

- Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young asked police on Monday to strictly enforce the law against protesters at actor Yoo Hae-jin’s home
- Choi said demands for a government halt to the film The Assassin(s) would amount to unconstitutional prior censorship
- The film suggests President Park Chung-hee or the KCIA may have been involved in the 1974 shooting of Yuk Young-su
- Conservative groups rallied outside Yoo’s home on Sunday; his agency said it was collecting evidence of spreading falsehoods

South Korea’s culture minister on Monday asked the police to enforce the law strictly against protesters who rallied outside the home of the star of a film about a 1974 political shooting.

The minister, Choi Hwi-young, said in a social media post that he had asked the National Police Agency and other authorities to take safety measures for film officials and the cast and to act firmly against threats and intimidation at their residences.

Criticism and debate over a film’s historical interpretation or point of view are “natural and healthy” in a democracy, Mr. Choi wrote. But when that criticism crosses the line, he said, and crowds gather at an actor’s home, intrude on his private life and threaten his safety, “it is deeply alarming and can never be tolerated.”

If a film defames anyone or breaks the law, he wrote, the recourse is a civil suit or criminal proceedings after the screening. Demands that the government step in beforehand against the film, *The Assassin(s)*, amounted to “a dangerous demand to return to the era of prior censorship, which the Constitution forbids,” he said.

The film deals with the 1974 shooting of Yuk Young-su, the wife of President Park Chung-hee, and suggests that Mr. Park or the Korean Central Intelligence Agency may have been involved in the attack. That premise has drawn accusations of historical distortion from conservative groups, and on Sunday members of several of them gathered in front of Mr. Yoo’s home to demand that screenings be stopped and that the producers and cast apologize.

The agency representing the actor, Yoo Hae-jin, said in a statement on Monday that slander and false claims about him were spreading unchecked. It said it was collecting the relevant posts and materials and would take “all possible measures” to protect his rights and safety from unlawful acts.

Leave the judgment of the work to audiences and critics, Mr. Choi wrote, and those who believe the film crossed a line should seek a ruling from the judiciary. “The dignity of a democratic society is preserved,” he said, “not by physically suppressing those who think differently, but by reasonable dialogue and debate within the bounds of the law.”