▲ This Yonhap file photo shows Cho Chul-hyun, late director of the 2019 historical film "The King's Letters," who passed away from cancer on Oct. 8, 2026. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) -- Cho Chul-hyun, director of the 2019 historical film "The King's Letters," died Thursday at age 67.

According to film industry sources and his family, Cho was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in February and had been undergoing treatment before he died early Thursday.

Born in 1959, Cho worked in various fields of the film industry for more than 30 years, including film planning and production and screenplay writing. He made his directorial debut with "The King's Letters" in 2019.

The film, which he presented after years of researching and preparing materials on the creation of the Korean alphabet, tells the story of King Sejong the Great's creation of Hunminjeongeum, the original name for the Korean writing system. Song Kang-ho, Park Hae-il and the late Jeon Mi-seon starred in the film.

The movie drew about 960,000 moviegoers after its release. Jeon, who played Queen Soheon, received the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2019 Korean Film Producers Association Awards for her performance.

Cho participated in the production, planning and screenplay of director Lee Joon-ik's "Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield" (2003), "Blades of Blood" (2010) and "Battlefield Heroes" (2011). He also wrote the screenplay for "The Throne" (2015).

He also worked extensively in the Korean film industry as a producer on films including "Going to Seoul to Save Dalma" (2004), "Sunny" (2008) and "The Happy Life" (2007)

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]