Out of concern for the family he left behind in North Korea he uses the pseudonym "Sun Mu" instead of his real name and does not allow photos of his face.
Sun has acquired fame and notoriety for the Socialist Realist style of his paintings, which resemble North Korean propaganda imagery and have even been mistaken for such.
One of his portraits of former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung was removed from a Pusan biennale because organizers wanted to avoid problems for exhibiting "pro-communist" art.
Sun himself and art critics have noted that his images are replete with political satire; depicting, for instance, the North Korean leaders in Western clothing.
An exhibition of his works, scheduled to open at the Yuan Dian Gallery in Beijing at the end of July 2014, was cancelled at the request of the Chinese authorities.