On the Art of the Cinema, a treatise on film propaganda in support of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea written by the future North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, was published.

On the Art of the Cinema is a 1973 treatise by the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It is considered the most authoritative work on North Korean filmmaking.

The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is the oldest active party in Korea. It also controls the Korean People's Army, North Korea's armed forces. The WPK is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists with two other legal parties that are completely subservient to the WPK and must accept the WPK's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in South Korea under the National Security Act and is sanctioned by the United Nations, the European Union, Australia, and the United States.

Kim Jong Il was a North Korean politician and dictator who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un. Posthumously, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).