Bae Eun-sik is a resident of Incheon, South Korea who has acted as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in movies, television shows, and commercials.
Bae's career began in 2000 when he won a Kim look-alike contest in Seoul.
"When inter-Korean relations flourished after the 2000 summit, I was swamped with proposals to appear in movies, ads, television talk shows and media interviews.
But when the ties frayed, I was forgotten and had a hard life," said Bae in The Korea Times.
"When I recently saw a newspaper picture of the leader, who apparently has lost a considerable amount of hair and whose face looked rather pale, I felt sorry for him.