Old photo falsely portrayed as South Korea politician's secret meal during hunger strike

"Lee Jae-myung says he is on a hunger strike, but he ate food placed on a bathroom toilet," reads Korean-language text in a Facebook post shared here on September 11, 2023.

The accompanying image shows lunchboxes packed with food and left atop a toilet cistern.

"Food prepared by Jae-myung's wife. Around 11:50, Democratic Party members placed the food in the last stall of the bathroom," says more text below the photo.

"Once Jae-myung goes to the bathroom and finishes his meal, party members clean up all traces."

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A screenshot of the false claim on Facebook, captured September 14, 2023

The post was shared as Lee entered his 12th day of a hunger strike that began on August 31.

The chairman of South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party has been staging his strike in a tent outside the country's National Assembly building to decry what he calls the government's "destruction of democracy".

He is also calling on the administration to oppose Japan's release of treated wastewater from its stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Ruling party lawmakers and critics have mocked the strike, with some suggesting Lee had been secretly eating in the tent.

Lee's party has denied those claims, saying he is consuming nothing but warm water and salt.

The photo of the lunchboxes has been shared elsewhere on Facebook alongside a similar claim here, here, here and here.

Comments under the false posts indicate many people believed the image genuinely showed a meal Lee ate.

"All this guy knows is how to deceive the public. This is why he doesn't look like he lost any weight," one user wrote.

"How pitiful, eating in the bathroom. To resort to such tactics," another wrote.

Old photo

However, a reverse image search on Google found the photo was shared as far back as March 5, 2013 on the South Korean forum DC Inside (archived link).

The post is titled "Typical lunchtime for a returnee student" -- referring to male college students going back to school after fulfilling mandatory military service.

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A screenshot of the original DC Inside post that first shared the photo a decade ago. Captured September 14, 2023

Screenshots of the same DC Inside post were subsequently shared on other popular South Korean forums in later years, including here on Instiz in April 2013, here on FMKorea in 2014, and here on Clien in 2016 (archived links here, here and here).

The photo was also published in a report by South Korean broadcaster YTN on March 18, 2014, about the phenomenon of solo dining, known as "honbap" in Korean, on college campuses (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false Facebook posts (left) and the photo shared in the 2014 YTN report (right):

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Photo shared in the false posts (left) and the old one shared by YTN (right)

The same image was also included in reports about "honbap" published by other South Korean media at the time, including Dong-a Ilbo and Aju Business Daily (archived links here and here).

Contacted by AFP, a Democratic Party spokeswoman said on September 14: "Chairman Lee has not consumed any food since he began his hunger strike."