An edited photo circulated in Facebook groups appears to show South Korea’s ruling party chief Han Dong-hoon inadvertently posing in front of a poster calling for an investigation into him. The original picture from December 2023 in fact shows Han and opposition politician Lee Jae-myung next to a poster demanding a probe into South Korea’s first lady over a luxury handbag scandal.
“The Democratic Party is despicable,” read a Korean-language Facebook post that shared the edited photo on September 1, 2024.
“They call for a leaders’ meeting and then demand a special counsel investigation into [Han]. Where did they learn this rudeness?”
The Democratic Party has backed calls for a special counsel investigation into Han, a former star prosecutor mired in allegations he used his status to bolster his daughter’s academic credentials, which include accusations of plagiarism and ghostwriting (archived link).
The image appears to show Lee and Han shaking hands in front of a banner that reads: “The president must accept a special counsel probe into Han Dong-hoon.”
The image made the rounds in pro-Han Facebook groups here, here and here as Han and Lee met for the first time since they were elected to lead their respective parties (archived link).
The meeting covered issues including a cash handout plan aimed to help citizens with rising living costs and an ongoing doctors’ strike that has crippled the healthcare system.
Comments left on the posts appeared to indicate some users believed the banner in the image was genuine.
“What rudeness is this, they have no sense of ethics,” one wrote.
“Lee is the one who should be investigated,” said another.
But the image has been doctored.
Doctored banner
A reverse image search found the original image published in a report by the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper on December 29, 2023, credited to South Korean news agency Yonhap (archived link).
The image, which can also be found in Yonhap’s photo database, shows Lee and Han shaking hands in front of a Democratic Party banner that calls on President Yoon Suk Yeol to accept a special counsel probe into allegations surrounding his wife Kim Keon Hee (archived link).
Kim is suspected of receiving a luxury handbag under questionable circumstances, though the country’s prosecutorial service — which was formerly led by Yoon himself — were reportedly set to clear her over any criminal charges (archived link here and here).
The original banner reads: “The president must accept a special counsel investigation into Kim Keon Hee.”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored photo shared on social media (left) and the original image taken by Yonhap news (right):
Broadcaster JTBC aired footage of the December 29 meeting — while Han was interim leader of his People Power Party — where the banner calling for an investigation into Kim can be seen in full (archived link).
Lee and Han’s latest meeting on September 1, 2024, took place in front of a painting of a royal court procession, not a party banner, as seen in footage of the meeting broadcast live by SBS news (archived link).
Photos of the latest meeting, published in reports here and here, also show the two leaders photographed in front of a painting (archived links here and here).
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