Video of police officer desecrating South Korean flag is AI-generated
- Published on October 29, 2025 at 10:16
- 3 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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South Korea has seen a resurgence of anti-Chinese sentiment ahead of a crucial summit that sees the country host China's president, but a video circulating online purportedly showing a police officer expressing pro-China views while trampling on the South Korean national flag is AI-generated. Inconsistent designs on the flag and the officer's uniform, as well as other visual anomalies, are indicative of content created using AI tools.
"Communist cop, Communist Lee Jae Myung. Fake president," reads the Korean-language caption of a Facebook video shared on October 28, 2025.
It appears to show a police officer stepping on a flag taken from a woman who asks, "Why are you stomping on the flag?"
"Because Chinese people don't like the flag. The president also doesn't like people who protest with the flag," replies the officer.
The video surfaced as thousands of far-right demonstrators descended on the capital Seoul ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southeastern city of Gyeongju (archived link).
The protesters -- echoing slogans inspired by the MAGA movement -- denounced President Lee Jae-myung as a "traitor" allegedly cosying up to China through his foreign policy, against the background of rising nationalist anger ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned visit (archived here and here).
Similar disinformation has circulated online in recent months, echoing rhetoric from right-wing protest groups that have grown more active ahead of the summit (archived link).
The same clip was viewed tens of thousands of times in similar Facebook posts, with many attracting hundreds of angry comments such as "He's not a Korean. How dare he stomp on the flag?" and "This is the reality of our country with a spy at the helm."
But there have been no official reports of a South Korean police officer desecrating the national flag, and the video contains elements indicative of AI-generated content.
The statue of King Sejong visible in the background of the falsely shared clip is warped and appears to be placed too close to the gates of Gyeongbok Palace (archived link).
The South Korean flag stepped on by the officer has too many trigrams (archived link). The flag has only four trigrams, one in each corner.
Moreover, the uniform worn by the officer also diverges from the official design of the Korean National Police and reference images available on the official supplier's website (archived here and here).
Authentic uniforms feature chest badges clearly marked "police" in Korean, but the words on the badges in the falsely shared video do not resemble any real Korean word.
The emblem visible on another officer's hat is also inconsistent with the South Korean police agency's eagle emblem (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked AI-generated videos that manipulate sensitive social or political issues in South Korea, including fabricated images and clips portraying public altercations and protests.
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