Old photo misrepresented as Lee Jae Myung's recent vacation

Published on August 5, 2025 at 08:34
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

An old photo of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in a swimsuit has been shared online with claims it shows him vacationing at the beach during recent floods, prompting outrage over his alleged negligence. The image was taken in 2017, when Lee was mayor of Seongnam city and participating in a reality TV show with his wife.

A post shared on Facebook on August 4, 2025 claimed the photo showed Lee and First Lady Kim Hye Kyung enjoying a holiday at the beach.

Text seen in the screenshot reads: "The president is on vacation, Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye Kyung" and "Watersports are best when the country is flooded."

The post surfaced as torrential rains triggered flooding and caused damage across parts of South Korea (archived link).

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured August 4, 2025. Orange X added by AFP

Other posts sharing the same image suggest it was taken as Lee is on summer leave from August 4 to 8 in the coastal South Gyeongsang province, South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported, citing the presidential office (archived link).

"People are dying and this guy is photographed in a swimsuit, how can we call him our leader," reads one comment left in the post. Another comment reads, "The economy is dying and people are suffering but he chooses to take a swim."

But the photo is old and does not show Lee on holiday in 2025.

Combined reverse image and keyword searches show the same picture was posted to Lee's verified Facebook account on August 28, 2017 (archived link).

Screenshot comparison between the photo shared with the misleading claim (left) and the original photo posted in August 2017 on Lee's Facebook page (right)

In the caption, he wrote about filming for the reality show "Same Bed, Different Dreams," a program featuring celebrity couples which aired that month on SBS (archived link).

A segment from the show available on YouTube shows Lee and Kim wearing the same swimsuits while surfing at the beach (archived link).

At the time, Lee was serving as mayor of Seongnam, a city south of Seoul.

Similar photos of the couple at the beach were also published in multiple local reports about the TV program at the time (archived here and here).

Lee is a frequent target of disinformation online which AFP previously debunked multiple times.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail