Posts target former South Korean first lady with misleadingly blurred image
- Published on June 30, 2025 at 10:50
- 4 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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The altered image was featured as the thumbnail of a YouTube Shorts video shared on June 23, 2025.
The clip shows Kim holding a blurred object to her mouth, with superimposed Korean-language text that reads: "Kim Keon Hee chain-smoking in a hospital room" and "[She] continues to chain-smoke."
The 25-second video does not contain any footage of Kim smoking. Instead, it features individuals repeating unverified claims that a hospital employee saw Kim smoking after she was admitted to the Asan Medical Center in Seoul on June 16 for what local media described as "severe depression" (archived here and here).
Kim is currently under investigation for multiple alleged crimes, including a suspected stock-rigging scheme tied to Deutsch Motors, the receipt of a luxury Dior handbag, interference in candidate nominations ahead of the 2022 parliamentary by-elections, and influence-peddling in a major highway rerouting project (archived here and here).
The same video was widely shared by multiple Facebook users critical of Kim.
Comments left in the misleading posts indicated several users believed the image genuinely showed Kim lighting a cigarette.
"Wonder who captured this video, they must have risked their life," one user wrote.
Another said: "Caught red-handed, the hospital should kick her out."
The image, however, is not from a hospital room -- nor does it show Kim smoking.
Eating rice cake
A reverse image search on Google found the photo is a manipulated still from news footage published on YouTube on January 11, 2023 by the South Korean broadcaster YTN.
In the original footage — timestamped at 1:10:57 — Kim is seen using chopsticks to eat "tteok", Korean rice cake, during a visit to a traditional market in Daegu (archived link).
In the doctored version, the rice cake and chopsticks have been obscured and blurred to create the appearance of Kim holding a cigarette.
Kim's visit to the market in Daegu at the time was widely reported by local news outlets, many of which carried similar footage of her eating rice cakes (archived here and here).
Newsis, a Korean news agency, also captured a photo of Kim eating a rice cake from a similar angle as the YTN footage (archived link).
AFP was unable to independently verify the claim that Kim was seen smoking inside the hospital. No images or video footage have emerged to support the allegation.
Kim has frequently been the subject of misinformation online, which AFP has previously debunked.
Reality TV show
Days after an altered image of Kim Keon Hee circulated, supporters of the rival camp shared a doctored image of First Lady Kim Hea-kyung, falsely claiming it also showed her smoking (archived link).
But a reverse image search on Google led to a YouTube video posted by South Korean broadcaster SBS on July 18, 2017 (archived link).
The clip is from a 2017 reality TV show that featured the first couple when President Lee Jae-myung was still mayor of the northwestern city of Seongnam.
In the original video, Kim Hea-kyung is holding chopsticks, with the tips lightly touching her mouth. But in the doctored image, her hand and the chopsticks were blurred.
Her husband has been a frequent target of misinformation, which AFP has previously debunked here.
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