Old photo of abandoned workplace misrepresented as S. Korea's presidential office pre-transition

Published on June 10, 2025 at 05:01
3 min read
By Hailey JO, AFP South Korea

After South Korea's newly elected President Lee Jae-myung likened the vacated Yongsan workspace of his impeached predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol to a tomb, an old photo was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed the office. The photo and a similar image circulated in February 2009 in a post and news article about an electronics company that reportedly relocated out of Seoul during a labour dispute.

"The presidential office left in complete chaos," reads part of a Korean-language X post shared on June 4, 2025.

It features a screenshot of what appears to be another post sharing a panorama image of an empty office space.

The post was shared shortly after South Korea's newly elected President Lee Jae-myung said the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan district "feels like a tomb" during his first press conference (archived here and here).

"There's no one here. Not even staff to provide writing tools. No computers. No printers. It's absolutely ridiculous," he said.

The next day, Lee's Democratic Party accused the administration of his impeached predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol of sabotaging the transition of power, describing the compound as a "crime scene" that had been "cleared out to destroy evidence" (archived link).

Yoon is on trial on charges of insurrection over his botched declaration of martial law, which saw him impeached, and faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.

Screenshot of the X post taken June 5, 2025

The same image was also shared in similar posts on South Korean online forums Ppomppu, Mimint, Wassada and Gasengi.com.

"They aren't even humans," read a comment on one of the posts, while another said: "Truly, truly despicable. They should all be prosecuted."

But neither Lee's office nor the Democratic Party have released any official photos of the presidential office in Yongsan before his administration moved in.

Moreover, the circulating photo has been online since at least 2009.

'Office relocation'

A reverse image search on Google traced the picture to a post from February 27, 2009 on a South Korean forum (archived link).

The post says the photo shows the office of Seoul-based Jaty Electronics, and claims the firm abruptly relocated to Incheon during a labour dispute with employees.

"The owner fled overnight," claimed the poster, who said they were an employee.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the photo from February 2009 (right)

The reported labour dispute was also covered by local outlet News Cham, which published a photo of the same office from a slightly different angle, credited to the Korea Metal Workers Union (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the February 2009 photo (left) and the News Cham photo (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

Filings with South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service, a securities regulator, show the company did move from its office in Seoul's Gwanak-gu district to Incheon's Namdong-gu district in the first quarter of 2009 (archived here and here).

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