Robert Kim (C), a Korean-American who spent nine years in a US jail for spying for South Korea
© AFP/File Jung Yeon-JeSEOUL (AFP) - Robert Kim, a former US Navy computer specialist, was jailed from 1997 until July 2004 for passing classified US naval documents to a South Korean military attache in Washington.
But many South Koreans consider him a patriot.
"It is a symbolic case which makes us reflect on various issues including South Korea-US ties and the division of the Korean peninsula," the director, Jeong Yun-Chul, told Yonhap news agency.
"I plan to portray Robert Kim's human aspects and the political situations he faced at that time."
Jeong made his name by directing a 2004 box office hit, Running Boy Malaton, a feature film on an autistic boy and his dedicated mother.
He said he will begin shooting the film on Robert Kim late next year for screening in 2009 and had already interviewed the 67-year-old Kim several times at his residence in Virginia.
©AFP