South Korean president's supporters target priest with 'communist' jibe

Published on February 6, 2025 at 04:17
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

As South Korean clergymen joined a growing push to boot impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from office, a prominent priest was targeted online by Yoon's supporters who shared an edited photo attempting to discredit him. The image of Ham Se-woong was altered to make it appear he was holding a North Korean identity card, echoing unsubstantiated claims that pro-communist elements had infiltrated the country's opposition.

The image shared by a pro-Yoon Facebook account appears to show Father Ham Se-woong displaying an identity card for North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.

Ham is an activist priest known for his leading role in 1970s protests against South Korea's military dictatorship (archived link).

Catholic clergy members including Ham have added their voices to widespread criticism of Yoon over a botched attempt to declare martial law that rocked South Korea in December (archived here and here).

The president claimed he needed to safeguard the country "from the threats posed by North Korea's communist forces and eliminate anti-state elements".

The crisis sparked a wave of misinformation about communists infiltrating South Korean politics -- debunked by AFP -- including a baseless report that Chinese spies were arrested at a South Korean election facility and a photo falsely spread as Chinese Communist Party members sneaking into an anti-Yoon rally.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on February 5, 2025

The edited picture spread on pro-Yoon Facebook accounts and previously circulated on South Korea's Naver Blog as far back as 2014 in a post critical of left-wing figures.

"What a piece of trash, hell is waiting for him," one Facebook user commented on the image.

"This isn't Catholicism, it is a nest of spies," another wrote. "This man is a spy taking orders from North Korea while disguised as a priest."

Sacramental bread

A keyword search found the original photo taken in 2016 by South Korean news organisation Newsis, showing Ham holding mass for the last time before he retired (archived link).

The photo shows the priest holding sacramental bread in his right hand, not an ID card.

The caption reads: "Father Ham Se-woong, an elder in the democratic movement and one of the founders of the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice, holds mass at the Cheonggu Cathedral in Junggu, Seoul on the morning of the 26th."

Meanwhile, the document seen in the altered image matched a 2008 photo from Yonhap news agency of South Korean prosecutors holding a North Korean Workers' Party ID card taken from a suspect accused of espionage (archived link).

The photo caption read: "A prosecutor's office worker displays a North Korean Workers' Party ID card at a briefing on the investigation of Kim Dong-soon, who has been accused of espionage after allegedly fleeing from North Korea under false pretences."

The ID card seen in the image shows it belongs to "Kim Dong-soon" and includes his birthday and the date he allegedly joined the party.

Screenshot comparisons between the altered image shared on social media (left) and the original Newsis photo (top right) and the photo of the party ID taken by Yonhap news agency (bottom right)

Kim was indicted by prosecutors for violating South Korea's National Security Act for allegedly providing funds to a different suspect accused of espionage, Yonhap reported (archived link).

He was later acquitted of the charge by South Korea's Supreme Court in 2012 (archived link).

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