South Koreans share doctored image of opposition leader 'protesting Japan-Korea summit'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 5, 2023 at 07:45
- 5 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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"Lee Jae-myung holds up this sign to insult President Yoon. When will (Lee) go to jail," reads the Korean-language claim shared here on Facebook on April 3, 2023.
The image purports to show Lee holding up a placard that reads: "Traitorous act, kowtowing to Japan. (Yoon) doesn't deserve to be president."
White text superimposed on the image reads: "Devil-like man, how dare he talk about what anyone deserves."
The image was shared online after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held talks in Tokyo in March, pledging to renew diplomacy after years of tension between the two countries.
Lee, who heads the country's leading opposition Democratic Party after narrowly losing to Yoon in the country's presidential election in 2022, publicly criticised the meeting, calling it "the most embarrassing moment in South Korea's diplomatic history".
Comments on the misleading posts indicated some users believed the image genuinely shows Lee holding up a sign attacking Yoon.
One user wrote: "Ok, but you (Lee) also don't deserve (to be president)."
"See how low class their propaganda is," another wrote.
The altered image was also shared on Facebook here and here, as well as here on Naver Band, a popular South Korean forum.
Opposition social media campaign
Through a search using the keyword "Newsis" seen in the photo's bottom-right corner, AFP found the original photo was published in a report by South Korean news organisation Newsis on March 27 about a social media campaign launched by the Democratic Party opposing the government's plan to raise maximum weekly working hours from 52 to 69.
The photo shows Lee holding up a sign that reads: "Society of overwork -- out! 69-hour workweek -- stop! 4.5-day work week -- go! Lee Jae-myung."
The image's caption reads: "Photo of Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung taking part in a campaign to promote the 4.5-day workweek plan, posted to his Facebook account on the 27th."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored image shared in the misleading posts (left) and the original image published by Newsis (right):
The campaign refers to the Democratic Party's criticism of the government's plan in March to raise the country's weekly working hour cap from 52 to 69. Yoon's government later backtracked on the plan after receiving strong backlash from young workers and labour unions.
Lee's party said the government's plan "forced an excessive workload on citizens" and launched a social media campaign to promote an alternative plan of reducing the workweek to four-and-a-half days.
South Korean workers clock up some of the longest working hours in the world -- an average of 1,915 annually per employee -- the fourth highest among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to data from 2021.
Identical images of Lee holding the 4.5-day workweek sign were posted on his official Facebook and Twitter accounts, alongside descriptions promoting the party's social media campaign to reduce working hours in South Korea.
The image was also used as a thumbnail for a video posted on Lee's YouTube account, showing him chairing a party meeting to discuss the 4.5-day workweek plan.
The same photo was also published in multiple local media reports, including here and here.
Protest sign
The sign in the doctored photo corresponds to actual placards used by South Korean protestors criticising the Yoon administration's move to compensate Koreans enslaved by Japanese companies during World War II using taxpayers' money.
The Yoon government said the decision was aimed at breaking "a vicious cycle" in South Korea's relations with Japan, which soured after Tokyo imposed export curbs on South Korea in 2019 following a South Korean Supreme Court decision mandating payment from Japanese firms to Korean forced labourers.
According to local media reports here and here, the announcement drew protesters to the streets of Busan on March 7, where people held up the same signs seen in the misleading posts that claimed Yoon had "no right to be president" following the announcement.
A higher-resolution version of the image was also used as a thumbnail in this YouTube video, posted by a channel critical of Yoon's dealings with Japan.
Below is a screenshot comparison of a close-up of the sign in the doctored image shared in the misleading posts (left) and a corresponding image published as a thumbnail on the YouTube channel (right):
Before and after Yoon's visit to Japan on March 23, Lee took part in three separate protests on March 12, 18, and 25 criticising the compensation plan and Yoon's meeting with Kishida.
Photos of Lee at the protest show the signs he held up at each of the protests were different from the placard seen in the doctored image.
The placards Lee held in the photos criticised the Yoon government for its "humiliating diplomacy" with Japan and its "shameful solution to the forced labour issue," as well as calling for "historical justice", but none of them claimed Yoon did not deserve to be president.
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