As South Korea’s Constitutional Court docket nears a verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, social media posts have repeatedly shared a photograph collage they falsely declare depicts Justice Moon Hyung-bae visiting North Korea. However the man within the footage is South Korean educational and politician Kim Geun-shik at a summit in Pyongyang in 2007.
“Moon, the pinnacle of the Constitutional Court docket, is a pro-North centrepiece who visited the North and fell for its honey lure,” reads a Korean-language Facebook post revealed March 9, 2025.
It features a collage exhibiting a person assembly former North Korean chief Kim Jong Il and posing for a photograph with a lady carrying a gown usually worn on formal events within the North.
Textual content above the photographs claims they present Moon, whom the put up accuses of being a “spy” who acquired “caught in North Korea’s honey lure”.
Screenshot of the false put up on Fb captured March 12, 2025
Professional-Yoon social media customers widely shared the identical collage and declare on Facebook.
Moon is certainly one of eight judges adjudicating whether or not to take away impeached President Yoon from workplace resulting from his failed imposition of martial regulation in December 2024. A verdict is anticipated in mid-March (archived link).
The Fb posts say Moon — a frequent disinformation goal — visited the North alongside South Korean actor Moon Sung-geun, a liberal activist near opposition politicians (archived link).
The picture within the bottom-right of the collage reveals a genuine profile photo of the decide alongside feedback he supposedly wrote on social media (archived link).
Nonetheless, the remainder of the images characteristic a special particular person.
Mistaken identification
Reverse image searches on Google present the images depict Kim Geun-shik, a professor of North Korean research on the Kyungnam College Institute for Far Jap Research and a politician for the ruling Individuals Energy Get together (archived link).
He advised AFP on March 11 that the images within the collage “certainly do present myself visiting Pyongyang” and that the claims concentrating on Moon are “pretend information.”
Kim additionally refuted the claims in a March 12 Facebook post, saying the images characteristic him “in the course of the 2007 inter-Korean summit” and that he grew to become conscious of the false posts after AFP’s inquiry (archived link).
Kim visited North Korea’s capital as a part of a South Korean authorities entourage for a summit between Kim Jong Il and then-South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun from October 2-4, 2007 (archived link).
A reverse picture search on Google utilizing the bottom-left photograph discovered Kim Geun-shik posted it October 19, 2007 on an online forum (archived link).
Screenshot of a discussion board put up Kim revealed in October 2007
A separate keyword search on Google discovered the top-left photos stem from a Chosun Ilbo interview with Kim in February 2022 and present him shaking fingers with the North’s former chief (archived link).
Screenshot of photos revealed in a Chosun Ilbo report in February 2022
The top-right photograph reveals Kim giving a brief bow to Kim Jong Il as they toast wine glasses throughout a reception on the summit, as seen in a set of images from the Roh Moo-hyun presidential archives (archived link).
Screenshot of a photograph from the Roh Moo-hyun presidential archives
The web page lists Kim Geun-shik as one of many individuals within the images, all taken at a reception corridor in Pyongyang — nevertheless it doesn’t point out Moon Hyung-bae.
AFP beforehand debunked doctored photos claimed to point out Moon sharing youngster pornography and a fake news report on the allegations, in addition to an altered image exhibiting him delivering a speech in entrance of a Chinese language flag.
