Photo shows people lining up for burgers at new store, not to meet South Korean president

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 21, 2023 at 10:50
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

A cropped photo of people gathered in a street has been shared in Korean-language social media posts that falsely claim it shows young people queuing to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. But the photo in fact shows people waiting for the opening of US burger chain Five Guys' first store in South Korea. The uncropped version of the photo was used in a news report about the opening on June 26 and clearly shows the crowd lining up outside the burger joint.

"Young people lining up to shake hands with President Yoon Suk Yeol," reads Korean-language text on an image shared on Facebook here on July 14, 2023.

"As he is so popular among the youth, [the ruling party] will certainly win the next general election."

The image appears to show a crowd of mostly young people milling about in a street.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on July 20, 2023

The same image was shared on Facebook here and on the South Korean forum Naver Band here and here.

One of the posts included a comment linking the image to a meeting Yoon held to review his administration's youth policies on July 6, with an audience made up of young people (archived link).

According to the Yonhap News Agency, Yoon pledged to "ensure fair opportunities and just rewards for young people, calling them 'partners' in constructing the nation's future and running state affairs" (archived link).

However, the image circulating on social media does not show young people lining up to shake the president's hand and is unrelated to any government event.

Burger store opening

A reverse image search on Google led to a photo that shows a similar scene in an article by South Korean news organisation Newsis about the opening of a Five Guys restaurant in Seoul on June 26 (archived link).

"Citizens wait in line to buy hamburgers in front of the new Five Guys restaurant in Seoul's Seocho District, which opened on the 26th," reads the photo's Korean-language caption.

The store's location can be seen on Naver Maps -- a South Korean map service -- in images taken in April 2023, before it was opened to the public (archived link).

The front of the newly opened store -- which has been cropped out of the image shared online -- is clearly visible in the Newsis photo.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the false post (left) and the photo published by Newsis on June 26 (right):

Screenshot comparison of the image shared in the false post (left) and the photo published by Newsis on June 26 (right)

Similar scenes were captured by other South Korean news outlets, including Yonhap News and News1 (archived links here and here).

The opening received extensive media coverage in the local press because of the large crowd it drew, with the chain reporting to have sold over 15,000 burgers in its first week alone (archived link).

As of July 20, AFP has found no official reports or photos of young people lining up to shake Yoon's hand in Seocho District.

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