Posts share fabricated Kim Jong Un warning to Israel over Middle East war

"BREAKING NEWS: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says Israel made a grave mistake by targeting its embassy in Tehran," says a Threads post shared on March 12, 2026.

Attached to the post are separate photos of Kim and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Screenshot of the false post captured on March 14, 2026, with a red X added by AFP

The claim was also shared elsewhere in similar Threads, Instagram and X posts.

"Please Kim, attack Israel. They attacked your embassy first," reads a comment on one of the posts.

Another says, "North Koreans have the right to protect themselves".

It circulated after North Korea accused the United States and Israel of undermining regional peace with their ongoing attacks on Iran (archived here and here).

The United States and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran on February 28, killing the Islamic republic's supreme leader, and Tehran has responded with waves of missiles and drones launched at countries in the region hosting US troops (archived link).

While Pyongyang has previously condemned the campaign as an "illegal act of aggression", there have been no official reports of Kim making the alleged remarks.

As of March 16 at 0200 GMT, there have also been no official reports of the North Korean embassy in Tehran being targeted by missile strikes.

North Korea's state media has habitually issued colourful threats against its sworn enemy, the United States, but it is "highly unlikely" that Kim will personally criticise the Trump-led war as Pyongyang and Washington are eyeing a potential summit this year, said Choi Seol, a researcher at the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul.

The United States has for decades led efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme, but summits, sanctions and diplomatic pressure have had little impact.

The Trump administration has mounted a push to revive high-level talks with Pyongyang, eyeing a potential summit between the US president and Kim. After largely ignoring those overtures, Kim said in late February that the two nations could "get along" if Washington accepted Pyongyang's nuclear status (archived link).

"The North's top priority this year is the summit with Trump. It is very unrealistic that Kim would himself make such a colourful criticism (against the war on Iran) that will greatly imperil the prospect for the summit with Trump," Choi told AFP on March 13.

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to the conflict in Iran.