Altered image of Trump in video conference with South Korean president shared ahead of US election

"President Trump holds a video conference with President Yoon right before his re-election," read the Korean-language caption of an image shared on Naver Band on November 2, 2024.

The image appears to show Trump in a video call with Yoon, who is standing at a podium.

It was shared days before the US presidential election, with voters either choosing America's first woman president in Kamala Harris or handing Donald Trump an unprecedented comeback (archived link).

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Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on November 4, 2024

Identical claims were shared elsewhere on Naver Band here and here as well as on Facebook here.

Comments on the posts suggest several users believed the image was genuine.

"President Yoon certainly has foresight, it looks like the US-South Korea defence pact will last going forward," read one comment.

Another said: "We applaud you President Yoon for looking out for the country's future."

The image, however, is a composite of two unrelated photos.

Teleconference with military

A reverse image search on Google led to a video posted on the "Trump White House Archived" YouTube channel, a verified channel maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration -- a US government agency (archived link).

The video -- published on December 24, 2019 -- is titled, "President Trump Participates in a Video Teleconference with Members of the Military".

Below is a screenshot comparison between the altered image (left) and the video from the Trump White House Archived YouTube account (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the original image published by the Trump White House Archived account (right)

A matching transcript of Trump's call is available in the Trump White House archives (archived link).

Yoon speech

A subsequent reverse image search of the photo of Yoon led to the same image in a report published by the local news site Kyunghyang Shinmun on April 1, 2024 (archived link). 

Below is a screenshot comparison between the altered image (left) and the image published by the Kyunghyang Shinmun (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the altered image (left) and the image published by the Kyunghyang Shinmun (right)

The Korean-language report said Yoon was delivering a speech where he spoke about medical reforms and the government's controversial plan to expand medical school quotas, a move that led to a months-long walkout by thousands of doctors (archived link).

The photo was credited to the presidential office, which published a larger, higher-resolution version on the same date (archived link). 

AFP previously debunked an image claimed to show Trump watching a speech by Yoon at the Republican National Congress in July.