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  • 2021-08-10 (xsd:date)
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  • This image of North Korean state-run newspaper has been doctored (en)
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  • An image purporting to show a North Korean state-run newspaper lending support to pro-communist activities in South Korea has circulated in multiple posts on Facebook. The image, however, has been doctored. On its original front page, the newspaper ran a story of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's visit to a shop in Pyongyang. North Korea experts said the doctored headline contains terminology not used by the newspaper. The image was shared here on Facebook on August 3, 2021. Screenshot of the misleading claim on Facebook. Captured August 4, 2021. The image purports to show a front page of the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun. The Korean-language text superimposed below the purported picture of the newspaper reads in part: The content of a front page published on North Korea's Rodong Sinmun! The main report on the front page is headlined: Proud revolutionary comrades from our brother country Honam Choson have lifted the torches of red unification in accordance to Comrade Kim Jong-un's orders. Honam is a term used to designate a region in southwestern South Korea that encompasses North Jeolla and South Jeolla provinces. Choson is North Korea's term for the Korean peninsula. The Rodong Sinmun is a state-run, official newspaper of North Korea, according to South Korea's Ministry of Unification . The image, which has circulated on social media since at least 2014 , has resurfaced on Facebook in recent months here , here , here and here . The image, however, has been doctored. The front page image A Google keyword search, using the date and edition number printed below the Rodong Sinmun masthead, led to this article published by US broadcaster Voice of America about press freedom in North Korea. It features a photograph of a Rodong Sinmun front page, with a caption that reads: North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, September 9, 2011. The photo is credited to US news agency The Associated Press (AP). Below is a screenshot of the photo on the VOA website: Screenshot of the VOA website. Captured August 6, 2021. ( Yenni KWOK) The genuine photo of the Rodong Sinmun front page shows a different headline and a different photograph. The photograph shows the then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il , the father of current leader Kim Jong-un. Translated to English, the headline reads: Great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il makes a guidance visit to to the newly built Potongmun meat shop. Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored image in the misleading post (L) and the genuine photograph of the Rodong Sinmun front page (R), with matching elements circled in red by AFP: Screenshot comparison of the doctored image in the misleading post (L) and genuine photograph of the Rodong Simun front page (R) Besides the doctored headline and photograph, all other aspects of the two front page images were identical, including the edition number and date, text layout, and the propaganda slogans flanking the masthead. Kim Jong-il's visit to a meat shop in Pyongyang on September 8, 2011, was also reported by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, quoting North Korean state media. The photo used in the doctored front page corresponds with photos of torch parades taken during the annual Jeju Fire Festival held in South Korea, as can be seen here , here , here and here . The headline South Korean lawmaker Ha Tae-keung , a member of a parliamentary committee that deals with intelligence on North Korea, also called the shared image a complete fabrication in a Facebook post from December 12, 2016, pointing out that many of the terms used in the doctored headline are different from official North Korean vernacular used by the Rodong Sinmun. North Korea doesn't use terms like 'red unification,' which is a term used only in South Korea, Ha wrote. The term 'Honam Choson' is also not used by the North, and seems like it is a phrase mainly used by Ilbe [a far-right internet forum in South Korea] users. Ha further noted the font used in the doctored headline was a South Korean font that is not used by the Rodong Sinmun. Dr Benjamin Silberstein , a North Korea expert and scholar at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, told AFP on August 4, 2021, that the headline in the misleading post was obviously doctored on. North Korean state propaganda has long since stopped claiming that South Koreans want unification under communism, Silberstein added. (en)
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