Picture of S.Korean politician 'supporting rival' is doctored

Published on May 30, 2025 at 11:00
3 min read
By Hailey JO, AFP South Korea

Ahead of South Korea's snap election to replace impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol, social media users shared an altered image of conservative former Daegu mayor Hong Joon-pyo sporting a jacket with a slogan backing the rival camp's Lee Jae-myung. The original photo shows no name or political message on his outfit.

"Mr. Hong Joon-pyo, I'm disappointed. Go ahead and live together with others," reads a Korean-language Facebook post shared on May 29, 2025.

The phrase "together with others" is wordplay on the Democratic Party's Korean name "Deobureo Minjudang". The first word means "together with" while the second means "Democratic Party".

Hong, a five-term lawmaker, ran for president in 2017 but lost to Democratic Party nominee Moon Jae-in. He made another bid in 2022, but Yoon was chosen instead as the presidential candidate at the People Power Party (PPP) primary.

After resigning as mayor of southeastern Daegu city earlier this year for another run for the presidency, he was again defeated and quit the party, departing for Hawaii (archived link).

The post features a screenshot from messaging app KakaoTalk that includes an image of Hong apparently wearing a white jacket printed with "Lee Jae-myung now" and "1" -- Lee's candidate number.

"A photo showing Hong Joon-pyo in the United States wearing a campaign outfit for candidate Lee Jae-myung," an accompanying message reads.

Text overlaid on the image reads: "This beast? A person?! A dog?"

Screenshot of the Facebook post taken May 30, 2025

South Korea will hold a snap presidential election on June 3 triggered by Yoon's disastrous martial law declaration, with the two-day early voting period beginning five days prior (archived link).

All major polls have placed Lee as the clear frontrunner in the race, with conservative ex-labour minister Kim Moon-soo of the PPP trailing far behind (archived here and here).

The picture of Hong sporting a pro-Lee slogan circulated across platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, X and Threads.

"The face of a human, but the heart of a beast. How can you be like this? Traitor to the conservatives. Quit politics," a misled user wrote in a comment.

Another said: "Hong Joon-pyo, why are you so petty and sly. Good luck getting along with Lee Jae-myung."

The image, however, is edited; Hong's jacket did not show a political message in the original photo.

A reverse image search on Google revealed Hong posted the photo featuring him and his wife on Facebook on May 15 (archived link).

He added that the picture was taken at the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island.

Screenshot comparison of the image shared in false posts (L) and the original photo

While in Hawaii, Hong has remained active on Facebook. At one point, he changed the colour of his tie in his profile picture to blue -- the symbolic colour of the Democratic Party -- before switching it back to the PPP's colour red (archived here and here).

This prompted speculation he might switch sides and join the rival camp, but he later rejected such rumours and expressed support for Kim, according to local news reports (archived here and here).

AFP has previously debunked misinformation surrounding the upcoming presidential election in South Korea.

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