Unrelated bridge demolition clips falsely portrayed as North Korea destroying links to South
- Published on October 29, 2024 at 04:27
- 6 min read
- By Hailey JO, Tommy WANG, AFP South Korea, AFP Hong Kong
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"North Korea blew up the bridge #North Korea South Korea #Korean War," read a simplified Chinese post shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, on October 17, 2024.
The video in the post shows various shots of bridges being destroyed.
The compilation was shared after Pyongyang blew up roads and railways linking it to the South (archived link).
Footage released by the South Korea defence ministry shows North Korean soldiers blowing up sections of the deeply symbolic roads connecting the North and South (archived link).
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the move was "an inevitable and legitimate measure" in keeping with North Korea's constitution, which "clearly defines the ROK (South Korea) as a hostile state".
Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since the North's leader Kim Jong Un defined Seoul as his country's "principal enemy" in January and said Pyongyang was no longer interested in reunification.
Similar posts circulated the compilation across social media including on X, Douyin and NetEase, a Chinese news aggregator site, amassing tens of thousands of views.
The dramatic bridge demolitions featured in the compilation, however, were not filmed in North Korea.
Broadway Bridge, US
Reverse image searches of keyframes on Google, combined with keyword searches, traced the first clip in the sequence to a longer video posted on YouTube on October 12, 2016 (archived link).
The post -- titled "Broadway bridge explosion epic fail" -- said the video showed the explosion of the Broadway Bridge in Little Rock, the capital of the US state of Arkansas.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the YouTube video (right):
The US Army Corps of Engineers posted a similar video on Facebook a day later, detailing their role in building the metal arch and noting that the explosion to drop it into the river had been unsuccessful (archived link).
"The US Army Corps builds things to last. The toughness of the Broadway Bridge's metal span reflects that excellence," they added.
News outlets, including The Guardian newspaper and CBS affiliate THV11, also reported on the initial explosion's failure to bring down the 93-year-old bridge (archived links here and here).
Hulton Bridge, US
The second clip shows the demolition of a bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2016.
The footage was also posted on the website of video agency Newsflare, with a description that says it shows the 107-year-old Hulton Bridge imploding into the Allegheny River in January 2016 (archived link).
Local news outlets CBS Pittsburgh and ABC affiliate WTAE used similar footage of the demolition in their reports from January 26, 2016 (archived links here and here).
Marble Falls bridge, US
The third clip corresponds to the video posted on YouTube in March 2013 with a caption that read, "Demolition of the old US 281 bridge in Marble Falls, Texas" (archived link).
Local media outlet KXAN used a similar video in a report about how a second underwater explosion was needed to completely demolish the bridge (archived link).
Shinkawajiri Bridge, Japan
The fourth clip in the compilation was posted on YouTube on November 18, 2020 by the Japanese broadcaster Nagoya TV (archived link).
The outlet reported the footage captured the blasting of the Shinkawajiri Bridge in a town in Gifu Prefecture, as it had become obsolete following the construction of a new bypass.
AFP confirmed the location of the bridge by comparing it with Google Street View imagery from November 2014 (archived link).
Amrutanjan Bridge, India
The fifth clip in the compilation features footage that was posted by Newsflare in April 2020 (archived link).
The description the Newsflare website says the footage shows the demolition of the Amrutanjan Bridge in India on April 5, 2020. The video agency noted the 190-year-old bridge had not been in use for several years.
The location of the destroyed bridge corresponds to images geotagged on Google Maps (archived link).
Indian news outlets The Hindu and Ten News India also shared similar videos of the blast on YouTube (archived links here and here).
AFP debunked a similar claim about North Korea demolishing links to the South here.
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