North Korea has filed a complaint with the White House about a forthcoming Hollywood movie on a plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong-un, a U.S. news report said Thursday.

Pyongyang recently sent a letter to the office of President Barack Obama to protest against the film, according to the Voice of America, which cited multiple diplomatic sources.

"The Interview," a comedy movie to be released in September, features a story about a TV host and his producer securing an exclusive interview with the North's ruler and being ordered by the CIA to kill him.

In the direct message to the White House, North Korea claimed the flick is an insult to the North's supreme leader, said the VOA.

The Washington-based network said the White House neither confirmed nor denied the report.

Patrick Ventrell, deputy spokesman at the National Security Council, refused to comment on that, it said.

Earlier, Pyongyang sent a similar letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, arguing that allowing the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a state is clearly an "act of war."(Yonhap)