kim jong il
Located in the quiet suburbs of Northern Seoul is a small store. The owner of the store and his wife make their living selling name stamps and other knick-knacks.
The store, its owner and his wife are quite ordinary except for one small fact – the owner looks remarkably like Kim Jong Il.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Il is one of the world’s most recognizable political figures. He will be long be remembered as one of modern history’s evil rulers, destined to have his name recorded alongside such people as Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Teung and Stalin.
However, if you look like Kim Jong Il, then life can be very interesting indeed.
Kim Yong Sik was born in 1949. Having lived in Seoul all his life, he discovered his unique talent about 15 years ago; when others started to notice he looked like North Korea’s “Dear Leader.”
Since then, Kim Yong Sik has made a living, part time, imitating Kim Jong Il in movies, television commercials, weddings and Japanese TV dramas.
Kim, now 59, is upbeat and jovial about his likeness with one of the world’s most recognizable villains.
“I don’t really worry about looking like Kim Jong Il,” he said “But it’s given me a chance to have some fun and make the most of things.”
In fact, Kim has become quite a celebrity. He was first recognized when he appeared in a singing competition on Korean TV. He was invited back to do numerous appearances.
His biggest gig as a Kim Jong Il lookalike came when he appeared in the Korean movie “Moo Goong Hwa – Korea’s National Flower”.
Kim has also appeared numerous times in Japanese TV dramas.
“The Japanese are crazy about anything weird, so they often focus on the stranger sides of life.” He told me. “I’ve been to Japan so many times to portray Kim Jong Il in TV dramas. Because Japan’s so close to North Korea, they’re really fascinated by him.”
Two years ago Kim was also flown to Lebanon after a chocolate company decided to use him in their television advertisements. He appeared alongside a Vladamir Putin lookalike. In the commercial the two infamous leaders shared their love of Lebanese chocolate.
Kim has even been asked to host weddings.
“My friend runs a security company. He asked me to be the MC of his son’s wedding. They arranged bodyguards and everything, it was quite realistic.”
When asked his opinion about North Korea, Kim was quite forthright and optimistic.
“I definitely hope North and South Korea re-unify soon. I hope it happens quickly. We are one people and we should make one nation. We will be stronger if we are one nation. Then other countries would have greater respect for us. Japan, especially, wouldn’t claim the Dok Do Islets if we were reunified.”
He also disbelieves recent rumours in western media about Kim Jong Il’s health.
“I think Kim Jong Il is alive and well. He’s getting old, but I think rumours about his health are exaggerated by the western media. They want to make news stories, so they sometimes say things that aren’t true. They speculate a lot.”
“A long time ago Kim Jong Il may have been an evil person, but not now.” Kim continued “I’d like to meet him one day. If I did meet him I’d say ‘look after your health and please work hard to re-unify North and South Korea’.”
In fact, Kim has visited North Korea. Early in 2008 he traveled to Mt Geum Gang Resort, a tourist resort for South Koreans, located on North Korea’s east coast. The tour operators advised him not to take the clothes he wore when impersonating Kim Jong Il.
However, when he arrived, other South Korean tourists commented that he looked like North Korea’s President.
“They were cheering and shouting how much I looked like Kim Jong Il. The waitresses, who were North Korean, were angry that the tourists compared me to Kim Jong Il. I asked if they thought I looked the same, but the waitresses were too shy to answer. We told them that in South Korea we are able to talk more openly about such opinions, which I think may have been a dangerous thing to say at the time.”
Not long after Kim’s visit to Mt Geum Gang resort a South Korean tourist was shot and killed on the beach, after apparently wandering into a restricted area. The resort was immediately closed and has not yet reopened.
Regardless of the real Kim Jong Il’s future, his South Korean lookalike has bright prospects.
Kim is ambitious and is working towards doing more publicity and being in prominent television advertising. He hopes to do advertising for popular products including traditional Korean wines and hair products.
“I’d like to do a Makkoli (Korean rice wine) ad. I’ve heard Kim Jong Il enjoys rice wines and it would be fun to do that kind of advertising. I use some perm treatment for my hair, to make it curly like Kim Jong Il’s hair. So I could do an ad for that too maybe.”
However, Kim definitely doesn’t want to do anything that would be negative towards Kim Jong Il.
“He’s (Kim Jong Il) not a bad really guy. I don’t want to be involved in any ads that don’t provide a good image of him. We’re Koreans, so we should be positive about each other. Korea has changed a lot. 20 years ago North Korea was evil. We were scared of them. Nowadays Koreans aren’t threatened by the North. We want to help them.
His sentiment appears true. As we walked outside to take photos, passers by noticed Kim standing in his safari suit, with his frizzy hair and trademark Kim Jong Il sunglasses.
People waved, cheered and shook Kim’s hand. They smiled and laughed at his remarkable resemblance to a man who was once their greatest enemy.
photos and story by david smeaton — copyright 2009
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