Updated October 2026: This post has been expanded from its original February 2018 version with the full story behind the viral photo, the Olympic diplomacy around it, and what happened to the impersonator afterward. It is a historical account; details describe the time it covers, not today.
In February 2018, a photo from the PyeongChang Winter Olympics spread quickly across Reddit and social media. It showed a man who looked remarkably like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un standing in front of North Korea's uniformed cheer squad, smiling and giving a thumbs-up. The cheerleaders did not smile back. Their mix of frowns, stares and a few stifled giggles became the joke of the day.
The moment lasted only a few minutes before security stepped in, but it captured something larger about those Games. PyeongChang 2018 was a sporting event wrapped in high-stakes diplomacy between North and South Korea, and the cheer squad was one of the most closely watched parts of it. This post explains what happened, who the impersonator was, and why a lookalike in a crowd drew such a strong reaction.
The Olympics as a diplomatic stage
Relations on the Korean Peninsula were tense going into 2018, after a year of North Korean missile and nuclear tests. That changed quickly in January. Kim Jong Un's New Year address mentioned the upcoming Games, and within weeks the two Koreas agreed on an unusual set of Olympic arrangements.
- A joint march. Athletes from both countries would enter the opening ceremony together under a unification flag.
- A unified women's hockey team. Twelve North Korean players were added to South Korea's roster, creating a 35-player squad. Under the arrangement, at least three North Koreans had to dress for each game.
- Performers and supporters. North Korea sent an orchestra, singers and dancers, along with a cheering squad of about 230 people.
North Korea's delegation also included Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's younger sister, who attended the opening ceremony on February 9 as her brother's special envoy. The Associated Press described her as the first member of the ruling Kim family to visit South Korea.
Who the cheerleaders were
The cheer squad far outnumbered North Korea's 22 athletes. Its members wore matching outfits and performed tightly synchronized chants and songs from the stands, and some media nicknamed them an "army of beauties." CBC, citing reporting in The New Yorker, noted that members were reportedly chosen for appearance and political loyalty after background checks, and that their role was to present a favorable image of the country abroad.
The squad appeared at events as a closely managed group, and cameras followed it everywhere. That attention sometimes produced controversy. At the unified team's first game, on February 10 against Switzerland, the cheerleaders held up masks of a man's face during a song. A South Korean outlet briefly reported that the masks resembled a young Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder. The report was later withdrawn, and South Korea's Ministry of Unification said the masks were simply used for the male part of the song.
What happened on February 14
On Valentine's Day, the unified Korean team played Japan in Gangneung, the coastal city that hosted the Olympic ice events. It was the squad's third straight game in the stands. During the game, the impersonator walked up to the section where the cheerleaders were seated, posed in front of them and waved a small unification flag.
According to NPR, several of the cheerleaders frowned or looked annoyed, while a couple appeared to giggle. Several men in fur-lined coats quickly pushed him away and made him sit elsewhere. South Korean police then escorted him out of the stands. CBS Sports reported that officers told him he had broken a rule against making political statements at the venue. He objected that he had only shown up with a flag and his own face, and police eventually released him away from the cheer squad.
On the ice, the game had its own moment of history. Japan won 4-1, but Randi Heesoo Griffin scored the unified team's first and only goal of the group stage. It came after the team had lost each of its first two games 8-0.
- January 2018
Kim Jong Un's New Year address mentions the Games; the two Koreas agree on a joint march and unified hockey team - February 9, 2018
Opening ceremony; joint march; Kim Yo Jong attends; Kim and Trump impersonators removed by security - February 10, 2018
Unified team loses 8-0 to Switzerland; cheer squad mask story briefly causes a stir - February 14, 2018
Unified team loses 4-1 to Japan but scores its first goal; impersonator removed from the cheer section - February 20, 2018
Unified team plays its last classification game and finishes eighth of eight - April 27, 2018
Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in meet at Panmunjom, the first inter-Korean summit of the year
Who was "Howard X"?
The impersonator introduced himself to reporters only as Howard. He is Howard Lee, who performs as Howard X, a musician and political satirist who was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Australia. He had made a career out of his resemblance to Kim, and he often appeared alongside Donald Trump impersonators.
The hockey game was actually his second removal of the Games. At the opening ceremony five days earlier, he and Trump impersonator Dennis Alan had been escorted out by security after posing for photos. Speaking to Reuters afterward, Howard joked that his face was "too political" and that he had been born with it.
Why the reaction was so strong
To most of the world, a Kim Jong Un lookalike is a comedy act. In North Korea, the leader is the center of an intense personality cult, and public mockery of him is not tolerated. The cheerleaders were a carefully selected group abroad under supervision, in a setting where any reaction could be photographed and scrutinized. Laughing at, or even appearing to enjoy, a parody of their leader would have been risky for them. Seen in that light, the stony faces in the viral photo look less like a punchline and more like a sensible response to an impossible situation.
For South Korean organizers, the episode was a small headache at a delicate moment. The Games were being used to lower tensions, and officials were wary of anything that could embarrass the North Korean delegation.
What happened next
The diplomacy of PyeongChang led to a remarkable stretch of summitry. On April 27, 2018, Kim Jong Un met South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom, becoming the first North Korean leader to set foot in South Korea since the Korean War. Kim then met Trump in Singapore in June 2018 and again in Hanoi in February 2019. The Hanoi talks ended without a deal, and relations later cooled again.
Howard X followed the summits. When he arrived in Singapore on June 8, 2018, ahead of the Trump-Kim meeting, he was questioned at Changi Airport and later said he was told to stay away from the summit sites. In February 2019, Vietnamese authorities told him his visa was invalid and deported him to Hong Kong days before the Hanoi summit, while the Trump impersonator traveling with him was allowed to stay.
The unified women's hockey team finished last in the eight-team tournament, but it became one of the lasting symbols of the 2018 Games and of that brief period of inter-Korean warmth.
The takeaway
The viral photo is a reminder that a funny picture often has more context than the caption suggests. What looked like a simple prank at a hockey game sat on top of a carefully managed diplomatic effort, a tightly controlled group of young women far from home, and a satirist whose face had become a political statement. When a striking image spreads online, it is worth asking who is in it, what they could and could not do in that moment, and what was happening just outside the frame.
Sources
- NPR via Public Radio East: This fake Kim Jong Un got a rather icy reception from North Korean fans
- CBS Sports: The Kim Jong Un impersonator returns, and police escort him out
- NPR via WHYY: North Korean athletes will march with South Koreans at PyeongChang Olympics
- NBC Sports: Korea women's hockey team and coach Sarah Murray
- Eurosport/Reuters: Japan win but unified Korea have their moment with first goal
- CBC: North Korea's cheering squad
- Korea JoongAng Daily: North Korean cheer masks spark outrage
- AP via Philstar: Kim Jong Un's sister begins unprecedented South Korea visit
- Wikipedia: Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics, women's tournament
- Wikipedia: April 2018 inter-Korean summit
- Wikipedia: Howard X
- Global News: Kim Jong Un impersonator questioned in Singapore
- VOA: Kim Jong Un impersonator deported from Vietnam ahead of summit
Top image: "Gangneung Hockey Centre in 2018" by Christophe95, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized). Charts by Thank You Robot.
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