Altered image of Trump 'posing with South Korean ruling party leader' spreads online
- Published on August 20, 2024 at 08:15
- 4 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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"Even Trump has acknowledged future president Han Dong-hoon," read the Korean-language text embedded in an image shared on Facebook on August 14.
The post also contained a picture which appears to show Trump and Han standing side-by-side.
The altered picture has circulated in multiple Facebook groups supporting Han after he was elected chairman of the ruling People Power Party on July 23 by a wide margin (archived link).
The former justice minister -- widely seen as a likely candidate in future presidential elections --- publicly expressed "great admiration" for Trump amid debate over a potential second Trump presidency during the party's leadership race (archived link).
The same image was also shared alongside similar captions on Facebook here, here and here.
Comments left in the posts indicated some users appeared to believe the image to be genuine.
One user wrote: "He met president Trump as justice minister, but why didn't the leftist press report on it?"
Another said: "He must have met president Trump when he was in the United States."
But the image had been doctored and there are no credible reports that Trump has met Han.
Rittenhouse photo
A reverse image search on Google found the original picture corresponded to a photo of Trump posing with Kyle Rittenhouse at Mar-a-Lago, according to a post on his verified account on social media platform X (archived link).
"I had the honor of meeting President Trump after I was acquitted," read Rittenhouse's post shared alongside the photo on March 15, 2022. "He was NOTHING like the media portrayed him to be."
Trump courted controversy by receiving Rittenhouse -- who was 18 years old at that time -- at his resort in Florida on November 23, 2021, days following his acquittal on all charges after fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 (archived link).
Rittenhouse's case drew national attention, in part because it arose from the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that swept the United States and featured a controversial mix of guns, racial tensions and vigilantism.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the original photo posted on Rittenhouse's X account (right):
US broadcaster NBC also used the same photo in a report on the meeting (archived link).
Han's 2023 picture
A separate keyword search found the part corresponding to Han's face in the doctored photo matched a shot of him published by the local news organisation Newspim on November 10, 2023 (archived link).
The image showed Han taking part in a cabinet meeting while he was the justice minister, according to the caption.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and Newspim's original photo of Han (right):
Han can be seen wearing the same suit and tie in the last picture in this photo series published by by local news agency The Fact on November 10, 2023 (archived link).
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