Pulgasari is a 1985 North Korean Kaiju film directed by Shin Sang-ok and Chong Gon Jo. Director Shin had been kidnapped in 1978 by North Korean intelligence on the orders of Kim Jong-il, son of the then-ruling Kim Il-sung.[1]

Kim was a lifelong admirer of the director, Godzilla, and other Kaiju films. He kidnapped the former director and his wife, famous actress Choi Eun-hee, with the specific purpose of making fantasy/propaganda films for the North Korean government.[1] Kim Jong-il also produced Pulgasari and all the films that Sang-ok made before he and Choi managed to escape from their minders while on tour in Austria.[1]

Teruyoshi Nakano and the staff from Japan's Toho studios, the creators of Godzilla, participated in creating the film's special effects.[1] Kenpachiro Satsuma – the stunt performer who played Godzilla from 1984 to 1995 – portrayed Pulgasari, and when the Godzilla reimagining was released in Japan in 1998, he was quoted as saying he preferred Pulgasari than Emmerich's "Godzilla".[2]