(Photo courtesy of JBTC)

A new Korean television drama series, “Snowdrop”, has been accused of distorting the history of the country’s pro-democracy movement in the 1980s, the Korea Herald reports.

After just two episodes, more than 200,000 people have signed a petition calling for the screening of the series to be halted.

The series is being shown on the pay-TV network JTBC. It centres around the romance between a North Korean spy and a South Korean university student during the 1987 presidential election.

The petition says the content of the drama defames the value and reputation of the democratisation movement and that many activists were tortured and died after being falsely accused of being North Korean spies.

The show’s director, Jo Hyun-tak, said during an online press conference that “Snowdrop” was a story of individuals and was not about politics or ideology.

The series stars Jung Hae-in and BLACKPINK band member Jisoo.