A photo of Cho Kuk, a minor third-party leader in South Korea, has been doctored to falsely depict him holding a banner calling for a boycott of Japanese imports. Posts with the doctored image have been circulated in Facebook groups supporting the sitting president Yoon Suk Yeol and said it showed Cho trying to gain support for his party by stirring up anti-Japanese sentiment. However, the original image showed him holding a sign urging voters to support his party at an election rally in April 2024.
“Kukki did not want to lose to the Democratic Party and tried to stir up anti-Japanese sentiments yesterday,” the Korean-language report said shared on facebook on July 4, nicknamed the leader of the minor opposition party, Cho Kuk.
Cho, a former justice minister under former President Moon Jae-in who founded the Rebuilding Korea Party, appeared to hold a rally banner calling for a boycott of Japanese goods.
The same banner was widely used during Moon’s term after South Korea and neighboring Japan traded economic setbacks resulting from a dispute over compensation for forced labor during the war.
South Korean progressives have long been cautiously from upgrading security cooperation with Japan to an alliance (archived link).