Forbes did not publish 'greatest leaders' list featuring South Korean president

Published on March 11, 2025 at 09:42
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

As South Korea's Constitutional Court deliberated on whether to uphold the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, social media posts falsely claimed US business magazine Forbes had ranked him sixth in a "world's greatest leaders" list for 2025. The publication told AFP it published no such ranking. South Korea did place sixth in a ranking of the world's most powerful countries, compiled by US News and posted online by Forbes' India edition.

"<Celebration> Influential US publication Forbes ranked President Yoon No. 6 in its greatest world leaders list," reads a Korean-language Facebook post shared on February 11, 2025.

"His impeachment will surely be dismissed with this support from the United States."

A graphic attached to the post shows Yoon next to a South Korean flag, with superimposed text that says "6 South Korea".

The post was shared as South Korea's suspended president faced hearings before Constitutional Court judges who will determine whether to formally remove him from office over his martial law decree that plunged the country into political turmoil (archived link).

A verdict is expected in mid-March.

Yoon's supporters have been searching for signs of support from the United States, flying American flags and repeating Trump-esque slogans at rallies to echo the president's claims about communist infiltration and electoral fraud (archived link).

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on March 11, 2025

Identical claims were also shared on other pro-Yoon groups on Facebook.

"We thank the United States for recognising President Yoon, but I still worry about the future," read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: "President Yoon is praised by the world, but the commies in our own country spit on him."

But Forbes did not rank Yoon the world's sixth greatest leader in 2025.

Laura Brusca, Forbes' senior vice president of corporate communications, told AFP on March 11: "Forbes does not have a list of 'the world's greatest leaders in 2025'."

US News' country rankings

A keyword search on Google led to an article published by Forbes' India edition on February 1, which ranks South Korea as the sixth most powerful country in the world in 2025 (archived link).

Forbes India says the list was compiled by US News, which used a ranking model developed by a global marketing communications company and researchers from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (archived link).

According to the ranking's methodology page, countries were scored on 73 attributes grouped into thematic sub-rankings such as cultural influence, entrepreneurship, power and quality of life (archived link).

A separate reverse image search on Google of the graphic used in the false posts led to the same image in a Threads post by the account "Wealth", which describes itself as a "Self Development & Business Blog" (archived link).

"Forbes released its annual ranking of the world’s most powerful nations," the post erroneously claims.

Screenshot comparison of the graphic used in the false post (left) and the same graphic shared on Threads (right)

AFP previously debunked a similar false claim that Yoon was ranked third on a 2022 list of world's greatest leaders by the US-based Fortune Magazine.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail