Career
She began her film career in 1947 in the film A New Oath. In 1978, Choi and Shin, whom she had recently divorced due to Shin having committed adultery, were kidnapped to North of Korea by order of Kim Jong-il. Kim"s plan was to have Shin work as his propagandist and for Choi to be the star.
Shortly after agreeing to the demands of Kim, they were remarried at his recommendation.
The couple finally staged their escape in 1986 while on a trip to Vienna, fleeing to the United States embassy and requesting political asylum. Choi appeared in eighty-one films.
With Shin, she wrote an account of their years in Pyongyang. Shin also wrote his autobiography shortly before his death.
In 2015, an English-language biography of her life (along with Shin Sang-ok) was published by Paul Fischer titled A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker.
