Old photo misrepresented as 'discarded South Korean flags at opposition rally'
- Published on November 20, 2024 at 07:33
- 4 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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"National flags discarded after the leftist rally ended," read the Korean-language caption in a Facebook post shared on November 18, 2024.
"The Seoul city government cleaned them up."
The photo shows sanitation workers gathering discarded national flags.
Identical claims were shared on Facebook here, here and here.
The post emerged days after a massive opposition-led rally in front of the old royal palace in central Seoul on November 16 called on President Yoon Suk Yeol to allow a special counsel probe into allegations surrounding his wife to proceed (archived link).
South Korea's National Assembly adopted a bill on November 14, 2024 seeking to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate first lady Kim Keon Hee for allegations of stock manipulation and meddling in the affairs of the ruling People Power Party (archived link).
Analysts widely expect Yoon to veto the bill and send it back for a revote.
A counter-protest was held by right-wing groups the same day around 600 metres away (archived link).
Comments left in the posts indicated several users believed the image genuinely showed flags discarded at the opposition-led rally.
"Leftists should disappear from this country, see how they dirty our streets," one user wrote.
"The organisers of the rally must be made to pay for the clean-up costs, why is our tax money being spent on their mess," another said.
But the image shows flags at a different event from 2019 organised by the local district government to demonstrate how to properly discard damaged national flags.
2019 government event
A reverse image search on Google found the photo was published by the Asia Business Daily, a South Korean newspaper, on July 16, 2019 (archived link).
According to the report, the photo shows workers from the district of Songpa in Seoul demonstrating how damaged national flags should be discarded according to South Korean law, which stipulates that damaged flags must be "discarded without delay by incineration or other proper means" (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false posts (left) and published by the Asia Business Daily (right):
A Songpa district spokesperson confirmed to AFP on November 19, 2024 the photo was released by the district office in July 2019.
Online outlet Simin Ilbo published a larger picture of the same scene which shows the photo was taken in front of an installation that depicts the national flag situated between the Songpa district office and Songpa health centre (archived link).
Google Maps' Street View imagery corresponds with the said installation and exterior of the buildings seen in the Simin Ilbo photo (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the Simin Ilbo photo (left) and Google Maps' Street View of the Songpa district office (right), with matching features marked in red by AFP:
AFP has previously debunked images falsely claimed to show Chinese protestors burning South Korean flags here and here.
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