The same modified image was shared on Facebook along with a similar claim here, here And here.
Comments indicated that some users believed the image was authentic.
“This is how a true leader acts, I miss Roh so much,” one user wrote.
“Yoon Suk Yeol should look at this and think about his behavior,” wrote another.
However, a watermark in the lower left corner of the image – “UhmyNews – News I want to believe” – suggested it was intended as satire.
UhmyNews is a play on words based on the name of the South Korean news organization OhmyNewswhose website returned no results with such an image (archived link).
Unrelated photo
A Google search yielded the following: original photo from Roh published on Hello Archive, an online platform of Yonhap news agency, on December 21, 2006 (archived links) here And here).
The caption of the photo read: “President Roh Moo-hyun put his hands in his pockets during a speech at the meeting of the standing committee of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council at the Walker Hill Hotel on the afternoon of the 21st to show that he does not ignore issues related to national security and unification.”
Below is a screenshot comparing the edited image (left) with the original photo from Yonhap News (right):
Roh reportedly expressed his frustration repeatedly during the speech and was criticized by several leading newspapers at the time for his negative behavior.
The same photo was published in reports from the Dong-A-Ilbo And Persianand was on the front page of several other newspapers in 2006, including the Chosun-Ilbo And JongAng Ilbo (archived links here, here, here And here).
Sanctuary image
A subsequent reverse image search on Google found this photo of Koizumi bowing at the Yasukuni Shrine on August 15, 2006 (archived link). It was published by the South Korean news agency Newsis and the local newspaper Jeju Today.
The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honors Since the late 19th century, 2.5 million people, mostly Japanese, have died in wars, including convicted war criminals (archived link).
Since taking office in 2001, it has been the first time Koizumi visited the shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II (archived link).
It sparked demonstrations and official protests from South Korea and China, Japan’s Asian neighbors and former victims of Japanese imperialism.
Below is a screenshot comparing the edited image flipped horizontally (left) with the photo published by Jeju Today (right):
Koizumi’s visit to the temple was widely photographed at the time, including by AFP (archived link).
