Doctored image shared as 'South Koreans waving Japanese flags after President Yoon's Tokyo visit'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on March 28, 2023 at 10:25
- 5 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"Today, in the middle of Seoul. They're going crazy," reads the Korean-language post shared on Facebook on March 18, 2023.
The post includes an image that appears to show people carrying Japanese flags in a rally near Seoul's City Hall.
The claim circulated online shortly after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held talks in Tokyo on March 17, 2023, pledging to renew diplomacy after years of tension between the two countries.
While some welcomed the thawing of Korea-Japan relations, others criticised Yoon for conceding to Japan's position on the issue of compensation for victims of forced labour by Japanese companies during World War II.
The image also circulated alongside a similar claim elsewhere on Facebook here, here and here.
The claim, however, is false and the image has been doctored.
Doctored image
A reverse image search found the image was previously posted on the South Korean forum DPrime, on February 25, 2019.
A commenter pointed out that the image could have been doctored and gave a link to a Naver Blog post.
But the Naver Blog post has been made private and is no longer accessible to the public.
When contacted by AFP on March 22, 2023, the blog user, who goes by the username "The King", confirmed that he took the original photo on January 27, 2017, when supporters of South Korea's then-president Park Geun-hye were protesting her impeachment.
He also provided AFP with three screenshots from his blog post displaying both the original photo and the altered image, which is identical to the one shared in the misleading posts.
Below are the screenshots from the Naver Blog post:
The blog user told AFP that he had altered the photo himself, replacing the South Korean flags with Japanese flags, in order to "poke fun" at Park's supporters.
The Naver Blog post reads in part: "There was a pro-Park demonstration scheduled to take place at City Hall today."
It continues: "The South Korean flag flew proudly in the hands of heroes who fought for independence. But why must our proud national flag be reduced and shamed in the hands of these [protesters]?"
The photo was taken a month after the South Korean parliament voted to impeach Park, the country's first female president, in December 2016, over a corruption scandal involving her close aide.
The corruption scandal and impeachment saga gripped the nation for months.
In the weeks leading up to constitutional court's decision in March 2017 to uphold Park’s impeachment, protesters – those who demanded her ouster and those who supported the conservative president – held rival rallies
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored photo in the misleading post (top left), the doctored photo made by the Naver Blog user (top right) and the original photo taken by the Naver Blog user (bottom), with some identical landmarks marked by AFP:
Protest placards
Conservative protesters in South Korea are known to carry the South Korean flag, called the Taegukgi, when they take to the streets, earning them a nickname: "Taegukgi brigades".
Placards held up by protesters, visible in the original photo taken by the Naver Blog user, also show it was taken during a protest against Park's impeachment.
Below is a screenshot of the original photo (top) and the cropped images of the protesters' placards (bottom):
In the photo's lower right corner, one protester can be seen holding a red placard with yellow Korean text that reads: "A false impeachment, completely invalid."
The same placard was seen in other pro-Park rallies, as shown in 2017 photos from local news outlets such as here, here and here.
Another protester, seen towards the bottom left of the photo, can be seen holding a white and red placard that reads, "Pro-North leftist. In Myeong-jin OUT".
The same sign can also be seen in photos from other pro-Park rallies in 2017, published in local news reports here and here.
In Myeong-jin is a South Korean pastor and politician who briefly served as the acting chairman of Park's Saenuri Party following the impeachment vote in December 2016. He was slammed by Park loyalists for refusing to defend the disgraced president.
In resigned as the party's leader in late March 2017, nearly three weeks after Park was removed from office.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
