BUSAN - The grainy, sometimes out-of-focus film opens with a warning: "This program is something you've never seen before. It is about brutal animal fights and it is all real and intensely interesting."

The 52-minute video, which the opening describes as "made in North Korea as a documentary", goes on to show a variety of animals, many endangered species, either tearing one another apart or posturing for an attack.

This is not your National Geographic documentary about animals in the wild kingdom battling over territorial rights, dominance or a sex partner. It's not about predators and their prey. Hanjoon Productions' animals are mostly caged, their battles initiated.

Rumors about North Korean films of savage, staged fights involving endangered animals have been around for years. Now, the films are available. The video can be found at some video rental shops in South Korea, but hunting around is required. A handful of Korean online video retailers carry copies, which can be purchased for about 5,000 won (US$5).

In the late 1990s, the North's Joseon Science Film Studio videotaped animals attacking each other under the guise of the production being a nature documentary. The films were brought into South Korea and the Ministry of Unification holds them in its library of North Korean materials. Fighting Animals volumes 2-4 are available for public rental, though they are only in Korean. Virtually nothing has been written about them in English.

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Copyright © James Card.