SEOUL: N. Korea is warning that the release of a new American comedy about a plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un would be an “act of war.”

If the US doesn’t block the movie’s release, it will face “stern” and “merciless” retaliation, an unidentified spokesman for N. Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in state media Wednesday.

He didn’t mention the movie by name but was clearly referring to “The Interview,” which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as a producer and talk-show host who land an exclusive interview with the N. Korean dictator and are then asked by the CIA to assassinate him.

The “reckless US provocative insanity” of mobilizing a “gangster filmmaker” to challenge the North’s leadership is triggering “a gust of hatred and rage” among our people, the spokesman said.