False claim about Japanese yen in South Korean president's childhood photo fuels 'pro-Japan' criticism

"Internet sleuths found the money seen in Yoon Suk Yeol's first birthday photo is the Japanese yen, not the Korean won," read Korean text on the photo shared on Facebook on October 25, 2024.

"He was born with a yen spoon in his mouth." 

Under Yoon's term, relations between South Korea and Japan have warmed as the neighbours reinforced security ties amid growing tensions with China and North Korea (archived link).

The East Asian countries, both crucial security allies of the United States, have long been at odds over historic issues linked to Japan's brutal 1910 to 1945 colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula, including sexual slavery and forced labour.

But the rapprochement has led to accusations within South Korea that Yoon is too dovish toward Tokyo. 

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Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook. Captured November 1

Identical claims were shared on Facebook here, here and here.

Comments left in the misleading posts indicated people believed the notes were genuinely Japanese yen bills.

"His pro-Japan fate was decided from birth," one user wrote. 

"His father must have been pro-Japanese to his core," another said. 

'Not Japanese yen'

A reverse image search on Google found the false claim previously debunked by South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in a report from November 20, 2021, ahead of the country's presidential election in May 2022 (archived link).

According to the article, then-ruling Democratic Party chairman Song Young-gil had claimed in a speech that the bills seen in the photo of Yoon were Japanese yen notes.

Yoon's spokesperson Lee Yang-soo said the bills in the image were "not the Japanese yen but 1,000 hwan bills issued by the Bank of Korea," demanding an apology from Song. 

The report included a higher-resolution image of the same photo. The presidential office told AFP the photo did indeed show Yoon's first birthday celebration.

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Screenshot of the Chosun Ilbo report on the false claim from 2021

AFP compared the image of the bill published in the Chosun Ilbo report to an image of the 1,000 hwan bill issued by the Bank of Korea, as seen on its official website (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image showing the currency note from the Chosun Ilbo report (left) and the 1,000 hwan bill image from the Bank of Korea's website (right), with matching features marked in red by AFP:

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Screenshot comparison between the image showing the currency note from the Chosun Ilbo report (left) and the 1,000 hwan bill image from the Bank of Korea website (right)

The 1,000 hwan bill was in circulation from August 1960 to 1962, according to the Bank of Korea. 

The same period corresponds to Yoon's first birthday in December 1961 (archived link).

Japanese currency notes in circulation in 1961 do not resemble the bills seen in Yoon's birthday photo, as seen on the Bank of Japan website (archived link).

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