Joint Security Area is a 2000 South Korean mystery thriller film directed and co-written by Park Chan-wook and based on the novel DMZ by Park Sang-yeon. It is Park Chan-wook's third film as director; as he largely disowned his first two films The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992) and Trio (1997), Joint Security Area is frequently regarded as his first film with creative control, and Park himself prefers the film to be regarded as his directorial debut.