Years-old video misrepresented as rally over South Korea ballot mishap
- Published on June 16, 2026 at 11:07
- 2 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
Ballot paper shortages during South Korea's local elections in June 2026 prompted thousands of protesters to take to the streets calling for a rerun, but a video showing massive crowds circulating on social media does not show the recent demonstrations. The video was filmed in 2019 during protests demanding the removal of the South Korean justice minister at the time over alleged favouritism for his children.
"The controversy over ballot shortages in South Korea's election is growing more intense. Tens of thousands of people have already taken to the streets to demand a rerun and the dissolution of the election commission," reads a traditional Chinese Instagram post shared on June 7.
The attached video shows huge crowds filling up the streets.
The post surfaced a day after about 10,000 people gathered at the SK Olympic Handball Stadium in Seoul, demanding the local elections held on June 3 be rerun after dozens of polling stations ran out of ballot papers (archived link).
The polls were the first nationwide vote since President Lee Jae Myung took office following conservative Yoon Suk Yeol's ouster over his brief martial law declaration in late 2024.
The head of the electoral body resigned amid the controversy, while prosecutors and police agreed to establish a joint headquarters to investigate the incident (archived link).
The false claim also surfaced on X, Instagram, Facebook, Hong Kong-based forum HKGolden and Taiwanese news website CM Media. It also circulated in different languages such as English, Vietnamese and Persian. But the clip actually shows another protest in 2019.
A reverse image search found a photo showing a similar scene in a report by South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun published on October 3, 2019 saying it shows a rally on Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on the day calling for former justice minister Cho Kuk to step down (archived link).
A separate reverse image search of the logo overlaid on the top right of the false video revealed that it is the watermark of a regional outlet, Yeongnam Ilbo (archived link).
A subsequent keyword search of the phrase "광화문", which means "Gwanghwamun" on the outlet's YouTube channel, found it published the same footage shared in the false post, with a caption saying it shows a follow-up rally held on October 9, 2019 (archived link).
The title of the video reads: "October 9 Gwanghwamun Rally… Jun Kwang-hoon: '10 Million People Gathered' | Yeongnam Ilbo".
Yonhap News Agency also published pictures of the rally on the day showing a similar scene (archived link).
South Korean media reported protesters held days of demonstrations -- including on October 3 and 9 -- demanding that Cho quit over allegations of favouritism surrounding his family (archived here and here).
Cho was appointed as justice minister in September 2019. But since the appointment, his family became embroiled in a scandal where he was accused of forging documents that would give his son and daughter advantages in their college and graduate school admissions.
He resigned days after the rallies, ending his 35-day stint as justice minister (archived link).
AFP previously debunked false claims on the same protests, where one of the clips was falsely shared as a rally against Covid-19 restrictions.
More investigations into false claims targeting the South Korean elections can be found here.
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