Choe Ik-gyu (Korean: 최익규, born 27 February 1934), also known under the pseudonym Choe Sang-gun, is a North Korean film director, propagandist, and politician.

Choe became the head of the Korea Film Studio(조선영화소) in 1956 at age 22. By the time Kim Jong Il took over the country's film industry in 1968, Choe was the most experienced filmmaker of North Korea. Kim and Choe became close associates – Kim producing and Choe directing – a number of important North Korean films. Sea of Blood (1968) and The Flower Girl (1972) were "Immortal Classics" that, in addition to being popular successes, profoundly shaped the industry. By the end of the 1960s, Choe supervised film making in all of North Korea as the Propaganda and Agitation Department film section head. In 1972, his responsibilities covered other forms of North Korean propaganda as well after he was made the vice director of the Department.

In 1978, Kim had South Korea's famous director-actress couple Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee abducted to North Korea. Choe was tasked with aiding them to make films for North Korea. After Shin and Choi escaped in 1986 on a business trip in Vienna under Choe's watch, he was demoted. Kim Jong Il's trust in Choe would survive despite numerous incidents leading to the latter's dismissal from his posts. All in all, Choe has been sacked five times from the Propaganda and Agitation Department: first in 1969, then in 1977 as part of purges, in 1986 after the Vienna affair, in 1993, and finally 2010. He served as the country's Minister of Culture between 2003 and 2006. He finally became the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department in 2009, but was replaced the following year. He remains a delegate to the Supreme People's Assembly.

Choe remained part of Kim's inner circle until the latter's death in 2011. Choe supported Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong Un's, ascension to the leadership of the country at a time when he was still an uncertain heir.

Choe Ik-gyu was born on 26 February 1934 to a poor family in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province, Korea. Choe graduated with a baccalaureate from the department of Russian literature of Kim Hyong-jik Teachers' College in 1954, and briefly became a lecturer of Russian at Kim Il Sung University's Pyongyang Labor Academy that same year. Choe also studied in the Soviet Union and graduated from the Red Flag Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang, at some point.

Choe is married and has a son and three daughters. His eldest daughter Choe Il-sim is an aspiring scenario writer, having written scripts for the five-part movie series The Country I Saw (1988–).

Choe began working at the Korea Film Studio, first as a deputy film director in 1955 and then as an independent director. He became the head of the studio in 1956 at the age of just 22. As a filmmaker, he was largely self-taught but aspiring. In addition to his formal education in arts, he now had much experience with the Stalinist model of making films in particular. Choe's breakthrough was the 1963 film A Garden Zinnia.

In 1968, Kim Jong Il, the country's future leader, took control of the country's film industry. Kim lacked experience in the field and so he teamed up with Choe, who was much experienced by this time and was "arguably the single North Korean most knowledgeable about film, other than Kim". Choe became Kim's closest partner in his activities related to film; his "film tutor". Their collaborations became immensely popular, Choe directing and Kim producing films that would become known as "Immortal Classics" and People's Prize winners. The first film Choe and Kim made together was Sea of Blood (1968), followed by Five Guerilla Brothers the same year. By the end of the decade, Choe had been appointed as a supervisor of the film industry section of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.