South Korean pop singer Lim Young-woong did not call ex-president 'communist' in TV interview

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 17, 2024 at 02:37
4 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

A video of South Korean pop star Lim Young-woong speaking about his music career in an interview has surfaced in social media posts that falsely claim it shows him accusing the country's ex-president of being a communist while praising incumbent Yoon Suk Yeol. Fabricated captions have been added to the clip which misrepresent the singer's comments. He did not in fact talk about politics in the interview which took place in 2020, before Yoon took office.

The video was shared on January 11 in a Facebook group for members of Yoon's ruling People Power Party.

"Lim Young-woong made an explosive comment: Moon Jae-in is a communist," reads Korean-language text overlaid on the footage.

"Well said Lim Young-woong, Moon did nothing at all except ruin the country," text overlay at the bottom of the clip says.

Lim rose to fame in South Korea after appearing in a TV singing competition show in 2020. The 32-year old commands a large fanbase among older South Koreans, according to the Korea Herald (archived links here and here).

The 57-second video shows Lim speaking in an interview, but instead of audio from the actual programme, the clip is overlaid with narration about what he supposedly said.

The narrator alleges that Lim "hurled harsh criticism toward Moon", blaming the former president for a spike in housing prices and "abandoning his people" to North Korea.

During his five-year term, Moon held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, prompting criticism he was too cosy with Pyongyang.

The voiceover also claims Lim praised Moon's conservative successor Yoon for "replacing all the communist ministers appointed by Moon" and "restoring economic growth to its proper level in only two months" after his inauguration.

Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook. Captured January 16, 2024

The clip was shared in multiple channels that regularly target Moon, including on Facebook, YouTube, and here and here on South Korea's Naver Blog platform.

The video resembles a format typically seen in clips from a now-deleted YouTube channel that shared dozens of similar claims, including one that said K-pop supergroup BTS maligned Moon in an awards ceremony speech -- which AFP debunked in September.

Some social media users appeared to believe the clip genuinely showed Lim criticising the ex-president.

"He is telling the truth the leftists don't want to hear," wrote one user.

"He always tells the truth," another said.

But AFP could not find any news reports of Lim publicly denouncing Moon on TV.

Misrepresented interview

The video circulating on social media was taken from a seven-minute interview that Lim gave to South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun, which aired on April 10, 2020 (archived link).

TV Chosun also published the interview on its website on the same day (archived link).

In the interview, Lim talks about his experience as a breakout star and the wave of popularity for the 1970s-style "trot" genre he is known for.

He goes on to thank his fans and the songwriters behind his hits.

The interview includes no mention of Moon, Yoon or any political issues.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false social media posts (left) and the original TV Chosun interview with Lim (right):

Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the misleading social media posts (left) and the original TV Chosun interview with Lim (right)

While the false posts claim Lim praised Yoon's performance as president, he had in fact not yet taken office when the interview aired and was serving as South Korea's prosecutor general (archived link).

Meanwhile, a vote counter visible in the upper right corner of the screen displays early voting turnout for 2020 parliamentary elections that were underway at the time the interview was broadcast, from April 10 to 11 (archived link).

Yoon was elected president on March 9, 2022, after winning a close vote by the narrowest margin ever.

Lim's interview with TV Chosun was covered by various South Korean media, including here and here (archived links here and here).

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