MOVIES - Nov. 2, 1988

Movie industry peace hasn’t quite broken out in South Korea after all. Even as Korean government officials and American film industry representatives were burying their hatchets on Monday, on the other side of the International Date Line two South Korean movie trade associations charged American international distributor United International Pictures with being a monopoly and using unfair trade practices. The petitions, filed in Seoul on Tuesday, ask the Korean government’s Economic Planning Board to ban UIP from importing films into South Korea. On Monday in Washington, the Korean government and the Motion Picture Export Assn. of America announced an agreement pledging freer American exportation of films into South Korea and a cessation of prohibitive censorship against American films. UIP has been the target of a multi-pronged attack since July 1987, when the Korean government relented to U.S. government pressure and agreed to allow UIP--which is distributing the hit film “Fatal Attraction”--to operate in South Korea, without Korean middlemen.