Old image of protest shared as recent protests in South Korea

This image from 2016 shows South Koreans protesting against then-President Park Geun-hye.

On 3 December 2024, Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, declared martial law during a televised address, The President’s move was reversed hours later after members of Parliament voted to block the move. Amid this, on social media, an image showing a sea of people doing protests has gone viral. While sharing the image users claim that “South Korean protesters march towards the presidential palace demanding his resignation.”

Let’s check the truth

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by conducting a reverse image search on Google and the results led us to a similar image uploaded on the report of Voice of America published on 3 December, 2016. The caption states, “Protesters occupy major streets in the city center for a rally against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016”.

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Moving forward, we came across the same image on stock image website Getty images, it was also published on 3 December 2016 and stated that the picture is from the South Korean capital, Seoul, taken by “Chung Sung-joon”, and documents “crowds of protesters gathered and occupied the main streets in the city center to participate in a demonstration against South Korean President Park Geun-hye.”

ABC News report from 4 December 2016 states, “Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans have rallied in Seoul in the sixth straight weekend of protests demanding the resignation of scandal-tainted President Park Geun-hye”.

The Constitutional Court in South Korea ruled in March 2017 to remove Korean President Park Geun-hye due to a corruption scandal, as the Korean Parliament adopted a memorandum to remove Park in December 2016 by a majority of 234 votes to 56, and Park was sentenced to 24 years in prison and a fine of 18 billion won, and a special presidential pardon was issued for her in December 2021.

Taking account of these evidences, we can understand that an old image of South Koreans protesting against then-President Park Geun-hye in 2016 has been shared as recent protests against the current President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Conclusion- 

Fact crescendo found the claim made along with the viral image to be Misleading. This image from 2016 shows South Koreans protesting against then-President Park Geun-hye.