Presidential office says purported letter by Brazilian leader praising South Korea is fabricated

The letter purportedly written by Lula to Brazilian citizens was shared in a March 2 Instagram post by Huh Young, a lawmaker from South Korea's ruling Democratic Party.

The post quotes from Lula's supposed letter: "I am now returning from a short but intense three-day stay in South Korea, on the other side of the world. During this visit, I witnessed the true character of a country beyond what we commonly call an 'economic powerhouse' or a 'technological powerhouse'."

The letter praises South Korea's hospitality during the three-day state visit in February -- the first by a Brazilian president in 20 years -- where the two countries struck deals covering everything from agriculture to business cooperation (archived here and here). 

It also makes reference to him being gifted a set of white gloves by the South Korean presidential office, with the left glove customised to accommodate a finger he lost during a workplace accident when he was 19 (archived link).

A similar claim the South Korean government had gifted Lula new gloves was also shared in a February 24 YouTube video.

The video features clips of Lula wearing the gloves and a description that says: "Meticulous protocol prepared by the Lee Jae Myung administration for Lula, who lost his pinky finger."

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Screenshots of the false posts captured on March 5 and March 13, 2026, with red Xs added by AFP

The letter purportedly written by Lula also circulated in Korean-language social media posts on Facebook, Threads, YouTube, as well as in blog posts. Similar claims about the gloves supposedly gifted to Lula by the South Korean government were also shared by some pro-Lee Jae Myung accounts, as well as on Threads and in local news reports.

South Korean President Lee praised Lula's resolve ahead of talks between the leaders, pointing out that they had both famously clawed their way to the top from unlikely beginnings, Lee having worked in a sweatshop to support his family while Lula dropped out of school to sell peanuts and shine shoes.

But the Brazilian president did not pen the letter circulating on social media, and the South Korean presidential office says it did not gift Lula the pictured gloves.

The Brazilian presidential office told AFP that the letter was fabricated.

Keyword searches on Lula's official Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube pages found no trace of the circulating letter (archived here, here, here, and here).

The Brazilian leader's social media posts about the state visit to South Korea featured short captions referencing K-dramas and the two leaders' humble beginnings (archived here and here).

Neither Lula's speech during the closing ceremony of the summit nor his press statement about his visit, which was published on the president's official website, matches the content of the circulating letter (archived here and here). Instead, they focus on trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

The purported letter is also written using a mixture of formal and informal Korean speech, which is not typical among native Korean speakers.

AFP ran the letter's text through GPTZero, a tool that detects AI-generated text, which estimated there was an 80-percent chance it was generated using AI (archived link).

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Screenshot of the detection result for Lula's purported letter

Meanwhile, South Korea's presidential office told AFP on March 12 that the glove pictured in the circulating posts was "prepared by the Brazil side".

The claim was also earlier debunked by Korean broadcasters, including JTBC (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to Lula and Lee.