A photograph exhibiting politicians from South Korea’s Democratic Social gathering prostrating earlier than a press convention in 2022 has resurfaced in social media posts that falsely declare it was taken shortly earlier than the 2024 legislative polls. The posts stated this confirmed “desperation” from Democratic Social gathering chief Lee Jae-myung and predicted a landslide victory for President Yoon Suk Yeol‘s Individuals Energy Social gathering. The information experiences from 2022 stated Lee and his colleagues have been pictured forward of that yr’s presidential election.
“They’re at it once more,” reads the Korean-language caption of a picture shared right here in a Fb group with greater than 50,000 members on March 18, 2024.
The picture exhibits a number of individuals kneeling on the ground and bowing their heads down. A banner within the background signifies the central determine within the picture is Democratic Social gathering chief Lee Jae-myung.
The textual content above the picture reads, “Out of desperation these items are once more resorting to kowtowing. Taking a look at their efficiency I can sense a landslide victory for the Individuals Energy Social gathering.”
Because the picture circulated on-line, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Individuals Energy Social gathering hoped to grab management of the legislature from the Democratic Social gathering in parliamentary races set for April 10 (archived hyperlink).
The same false declare was additionally shared in different Fb teams with hundreds of members.
Comparable shows of contrition are frequent for South Korean politicians who’ve been embroiled in scandals or face sinking approval rankings going into elections — as seen in experiences ranging again a number of years, together with right here, right here and right here (archived hyperlinks right here, right here and right here).
This picture exhibits Democratic Social gathering politicians bowing earlier than the 2022 presidential election, not forward of parliamentary polls in 2024.
Earlier presidential election
A reverse picture search on Google discovered a corresponding picture revealed by Yonhap Information on January 24, 2022, lower than two months earlier than the nation’s final presidential election (archived hyperlink).
In response to the Korean-language caption, it exhibits Lee — a former governor of Gyeonggi province — prostrating forward of a press convention together with his colleagues.
It reads: “Democratic Social gathering candidate Lee Jae-myung, forward of a press convention to announce his coverage guarantees for Gyeonggi province at Yongin’s Poeun Artwork Corridor on the morning of the twenty fourth, makes a terrific bow alongside his social gathering’s legislators from Gyeonggi.”
Beneath is a screenshot comparability of the picture used within the false posts (left) and the picture revealed by Yonhap in January 2022 (proper):
Public broadcaster KBS revealed footage from the press convention on the identical date; Lee and his social gathering’s lawmakers could be seen prostrating on the video’s six-minute and 23-second mark (archived hyperlink).
In response to native media experiences of the occasion which carried the identical picture, Lee apologised for shortcomings in his social gathering’s governance all through the outgoing Moon Jae-in administration (archived hyperlink right here).
On the time, Lee was trailing in opinion polls to Yoon, who went on to win the election by a razor-thin margin in March of that yr.
The contents throughout the article have been provided through Newswire for Finencial.com, go to