This photo of South Korean politician Lee Jae-myung was taken in 2018
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 22, 2021 at 06:17
- 2 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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The image was shared here on Facebook on November 10.
The Korean text superimposed on the image reads: "[Lee] is using KakaoTalk....after hospitalising his wife".
KakaoTalk is a messaging app widely used in South Korea.
Lee is South Korea's ruling Democratic Party's candidate for the 2022 presidential election. Before his nomination, Lee served as governor of Gyeonggi Province.
The image circulated online after Lee announced on November 9 he would cancel all campaign events after his wife was hospitalised, local media reported.
At that time, Lee's party rejected reports that he had physically harmed his wife.
The identical image was shared in similar Facebook posts here, here and here.
However, the claim is false.
A reverse image search on Google found the original photo of Lee published here by South Korean news agency Newsis on November 20, 2018.
"Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung looks at his mobile phone in his car after attending the 2018 National Assembly seminar on railway policy held at the National Assembly's library in Yeouido, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 20th. 2018.11.20," the photo's Korean-language caption reads.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared on Facebook (left) and the original Newsis photo (right):
The same photo was used in various news reports in November 2018, including here and here.
Yonhap News Agency, another South Korean news agency, published several photos of Lee attending that day's events at the National Assembly on November 20, 2018.
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