Fabricated article targets S. Korean judge, opposition leader

"So anyone who looks at pornography can be considered healthy," says a Korean-language Facebook post published February 12, 2025. "These pieces of trash."

The post shares an apparent report from South Korean broadcaster JTBC with a quote from opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung alleging Moon watched pornography featuring a high school girl.

Lee is quoted as saying Moon's alleged behaviour "shows he is still healthy."

The supposed JTBC report refers to allegations from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and its supporters that Moon partook in an online forum comprised of his high school classmates in which an unknown user shared pornographic material.

A supposed screenshot of one such post -- widely shared online among PPP supporters -- appears to show Moon left a comment on the image.

Image

Screenshot of the false post captured February 14, 2025

The PPP attacked Moon for "consuming (pornography) as entertainment" but later revised the statement after media outlets reported that the alleged comment was manipulated (archived links here and here). 

AFP independently confirmed Moon's supposed comment was taken from a high school school forum that did not involve any sexually explicit material.

Moon is one of eight justices adjudicating Yoon's impeachment trial after the president was suspended from power following an abortive martial law attempt in December 2024 (archived link). 

Classified as a liberal-leaning member of the bench, he has repeatedly been the target of attacks and disinformation from Yoon supporters (archived link). AFP previously debunked an altered image appearing to show Moon speaking in front of a Chinese flag, as well as a claim that Tesla owner Elon Musk publicly criticised him in an X post.

The fake JTBC report also spread among pro-Yoon users and on forums supportive of the impeached president, including here, here, here and here. Hundreds of users left comments indicating they believe the article is genuine. 

"This shows how truly disgusting Lee and Moon are," one user wrote. "Leftists have no sense of moral dignity."

"Lee is revolting for treating Moon's porn obsession as something normal," another said.

But JTBC did not publish the report.

'Typical fake news'

AFP could find no trace of the supposed headline on JTBC's website (archived link).

"This file is typical fake news created by maliciously editing JTBC's homepage style," Deputy Director of Reporting Kim Pil-gyu told AFP on February 13 (archived link).

"Its crudeness can be seen in the fact that even the reporter's name and profile photo do not match."

The report was attributed to JTBC's society division reporter Lee Se-hyun, who is a man. But the image shared online shows a profile photo of a female reporter (archived link).

Kim added that JTBC is considering "legal action against the creator and propagators of this fake news."

A Google keyword search using the fake report's headline found it was first shared February 12 on the far-right forum Ilbe.

Image

Screenshot of a Google keyword search captured February 14, 2025

The post has since been deleted, but AFP found Google search results indicating it spread online before any of the Facebook posts sharing the screenshot. 

The text in the thumbnail in the fake JTBC article, meanwhile, stems from an unrelated report from a different broadcaster published January 29 (archived link).

The TV Chosun report, titled "'They had multiple conversations'... What is the relationship between Lee Jae-myung and Moon Hyung-bae," raises questions about Moon's partiality based on his prior relationship with Lee. 

It does not, however, refer to any of the pornography allegations.