This photo has been doctored and comes from a satirical account
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 16, 2021 at 11:29
- 2 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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The photo was published here on Twitter on June 6, 2021.
The caption, written in simplified Chinese, reads: “exquisite painting.”
The photo shows a screenshot of a Weibo post that includes two pictures of Kim Jong-un with government officials on a bus. The first photo shows the officials sketching Kim, while the second shows a close-up of a sketch, which reveals a cartoon pig.
The original Weibo post’s caption reads: “The Supreme Commander inspected the Pyongyang Bus factory and gave valuable advice to the production of passenger cars at that time.”
Comments suggest many social media users interpreted the post as a joke, although some appeared to believe the photo was genuine.
“This proves that there are still people who are just so brave,” one Twitter user commented.
“Drawing a portrait of a ‘pig’ in front of his monarch in this theocratic totalitarian monarchy country is simply seeking death,” another wrote.
“Turns out no one is jotting down notes, but are drawing sketches,” another said.
The same photo was shared alongside a similar claim on Twitter here and here; and on Reddit here.
However, the photo was doctored and originally shared in a satirical post.
The image was shared by a Weibo user who removed the original post. However, the Weibo account is famous for sharing humorous and satirical posts about North Korea and Kim Jung-un, according to Chinese news website Huanqiu.com.
A Google reverse image search of the sketch found the original photo published here on Voice of Korea, the international broadcasting service of North Korea, in a report titled: “General Secretary Kim Jong Un learns about new trial buses”.
The original photo does not feature a sketch of a pig.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (L) and the photo in Voice of Korea (R):
The same photo was also published in a news video here by the Korean Central Television, the state news agency of North Korea, on March 26, 2021 at the 4-minute and 28-second mark.
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