Doctored image targets Lee Jae-myung's women supporters

Published on June 11, 2025 at 06:28
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

Prior to Lee Jae-myung's election as South Korean president on June 3, an image of a banner held by a young woman was doctored and shared in posts misrepresenting her message of support for the centre-left candidate as extremely graphic. The original photo, which was posted online during Lee's previous presidential campaign in March 2022, in fact shows a sign absent of any profane language.

Warning: graphic language in paragraph four

"Even if the candidate is a criminal, dictator or thug, these people say they'll support Lee Jae-myung even if they're ripped apart," reads part of a Korean-language Facebook post shared on June 2, 2025.

"Regardless of the martial law (declaration) or impeachment, we cannot hand over the country's fate to these kinds of people."

The post includes an image of someone holding up a sign that reads, "Even if our genitals are ripped apart, we will support Lee Jae-myung."

The language used on the purported sign appears to reference a controversy involving Lee, stemming from a leaked 2012 phone call in which he used explicit language while speaking with his sister-in-law (archived link).

Lee says that while he regrets the comments, he had been quoting profanities used by his brother (archived link).

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Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on June 10, 2025

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The image was shared a day before South Korea's snap presidential election on June 3, which Lee won with 49.4 percent of the popular vote. According to the election results, he secured over 60 percent of the vote among women in their 20s and 30s (archived link).

The same image was also repeatedly shared elsewhere in similar Facebook posts from conservative users as well as in forums, with commenters mocking Lee's women supporters.

"They've really gone insane, haven't they? They'd really sacrifice their genitals for Lee?" read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: "This goes to show just how extreme his supporters are, they should be put in an asylum."

The image, however, was doctored.

'Desperately Jae-myung'

A reverse image search on Google led to the original photo, showing a sign without any explicit language, published in an online report by labour-related news outlet Workers' Solidarity from April 12, 2022 (archived link).

The sign reads, "Desperately Jae-myung".

The outlet's photo editor Lee Mi-jin told AFP the image was taken from a Facebook post shared by former ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Kwon In-sook a day ahead of the previous presidential election on March 8, 2022 (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison of the doctored image (left) and the photo posted by former lawmaker Kwon In-sook in 2022 (right)

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Lee ran in the 2022 election as the Democratic Party's candidate, losing by a razor-thin margin to Yoon Suk Yeol (archived link).

Kwon's post, which included various photos of a rally attended by Lee, called on his supporters to unite ahead of the vote.

A keyword search on YouTube found Kwon's photos matched footage of a rally held at Yeouido in central Seoul on the same day (archived link).

Similar signs matching those in Kwon's photos can be seen at the YouTube video's 13:38, 22:06 and 22:48 marks; no signs containing the explicit language seen in the misleading social media posts can be spotted.

AFP previously debunked multiple false claims surrounding Lee's presidential campaign.

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