Doctored image of South Korean first lady was not published by local news agency
- Published on July 19, 2024 at 05:47
- 3 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.
The false claim circulated after Yonhap replaced a shot of Kim with her husband President Yoon Suk Yeol landing in Hawaii on July 9 ahead of a NATO summit (archived link).
The photo swap prompted controversy online, with some social media users mocking Kim's appearance, according to local reports here and here (archived links here and here).
A close-up of Kim seen in the original Yonhap picture was shared in a Facebook post on July 13 -- alongside a version of the same image apparently doctored to improve her appearance.
The post also contained a Korean-language caption that read: "Who is this woman obsessed with plastic surgery?
"Just because her appearance is changed through Photoshop doesn't change her essence."
The superimposed text on the image read: "[Kim's] appearance generates talk on social media, causing the photo to be deleted."
The post then quoted Yonhap as saying: "We swapped the photo with another selection," suggesting the photo on the left was replaced with that on the right.
Identical images were shared with a similar false claim on Facebook here, here and here.
Comments on the false posts indicated many users were misled to believe Yonhap had swapped the original photo with the digitally altered version.
"This is why the media can't be trusted, they're now putting out fake photos," one user wrote.
"How can we trust any photos of Kim, they're probably all photoshopped," another user said.
Photo swap
However, the altered photo was not published by Yonhap.
"After examining our archives, we can conclude we have nothing to do with the second photo, as we do not Photoshop our images," the agency's director of photography Ahn Jung-won told AFP on July 16.
He went on to say that the agency had replaced this photo of Kim with President Yoon -- seen on the left-hand side of the false posts -- with this photo from the same event at Honolulu's Hickam Air Force Base (archived link).
Both photos show the couple being greeted by Hawaii Governor Josh Green and his wife before the NATO summit on July 9, 2024.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the original Yonhap photo (left) and the one that replaced it on July 10 (right):
A comparison of the second photo in the false posts (left) with a zoomed-in shot of Kim from the Yonhap photo published on July 10 (right) confirms they are not the same image:
AFP has previously debunked another false claim about Kim here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
