Right-wing S. Korean YouTuber misrepresents US general's interview as election endorsement

"Bombshell remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea! The US Department of Defense backs Kim Moon-soo!" reads Korean-language text on a thumbnail of a YouTube video published on May 16, where it has since gained 300,000 views.

In the video, right-wing YouTuber Shin In-gyun tells his 1.5 million subscribers the Pentagon had "effectively said" the Democratic Party's presidential election frontrunner Lee Jae-myung "must not be elected" in South Korea's upcoming June 3 poll (archived link).

Instead, he says the conservative People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo "must win for the US-South Korea alliance to be maintained". 

Shin, who previously shared false claims about "Chinese spies" in South Korea, said the assertion was made by US Forces Korea commander General Xavier Brunson in a May 13 Defense News article and further claimed it was "no different from an endorsement of Kim" (archived link).

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Screenshots from the YouTube channel 'Shin In-gyun's Defense TV'

Kim is expected to take a harder line on North Korea compared to the Democratic Party's Lee.

The former labour minister under ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol's government shot to public attention as the only cabinet member who refused to bow in apology for failing to stop Yoon's attempted suspension of civilian rule and for opposing his impeachment (archived link).

Yoon claimed that he declared martial law on December 3 because he needed to safeguard South Korea "from the threats posed by North Korea's communist forces" (archived link). 

Shin's video about the purported endorsement of Kim surfaced elsewhere on Facebook, Threads, Instagram and X, misleading social media users.

One commented that Brunson, "who abandoned the duty of political neutrality, is going to be fired".

Another asked, "Why aren't Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and DongA Ilbo reporting this", referring to the country's major conservative newspapers.

However, neither Brunson nor the Pentagon have endorsed Kim.

"The claim is completely untrue," a spokesperson for the US Forces Korea told AFP on May 20. 

The spokesperson added that the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and US Forces Korea -- all under Brunson's leadership -- "remain strictly apolitical". 

Misrepresented interview

The Defense News article that Shin refers to in his video is headlined: "Top US general in Korea talks maps, China, and getting Patriots back" (archived link). In it, Brunson is discussing South Korea's current geopolitical situation and does not at any point endorse either presidential candidate. 

In the section translated by Shin, the reporter in fact asked Brunson: "South Korea has an election in June after the last president was impeached for declaring martial law. Regardless of who wins, do you think the recent work with Japan, South Korea and the U.S. will last?"

"I think it will survive because the threat will continue to metastasize. If there’s a thing that our adversaries have learned over time is the power of alliances, the power of proxies," Brunson responds.

He goes on to talk about a proxy war in the Middle East, North Korea's participation in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's involvement in North Korea.  

"The new leader in the Republic of Korea from 4 June forward has to take on the fact that his nation sits at the juncture of an alliance of sorts that he’s got to counter," he says.

Keyword searches on Google also found no record of Brunson or the US Department of Defense backing the conservative candidate.

AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to the upcoming 2025 presidential election in South Korea.