Social media users falsely share old photo of late Seoul mayor as 'recent sighting'

South Korean police concluded former Seoul mayor Park Won-soon took his own life in 2020, however, four years on, social media users have repeatedly shared an old picture of him alongside a false claim he was spotted in a rural marketplace. The image dates back to reports from 2012 when then-mayor Park visited a market in the South Korean capital. The false claim was shared on Facebook on November 1, 2024.

"An investigation needs to be carried out immediately. How is this guy still alive?" read the Korean-language text posted above an image of late Seoul mayor Park Won-soon wearing a hat and backpack at a market.

The text below the photo read, "A photo coincidentally taken in a rural marketplace. His body was never even shown to his family".

The overlayed text in the photo read, "Park Won-soon is alive."

Park, who was a three-term mayor of Seoul from 2011 to 2020, was found dead one day after being accused of sexual harassment ( archived link ).

Seoul police concluded there was no evidence of foul play involved, saying he took his own life ( archived link ).

Identical claims were shared in over a hundred different Facebook posts, including here , here , here and here .

Comments on the posts indicated some users were misled to believe the image was recent.

"The leftists are always deceiving us. The government should launch a new probe into Park's death immediately," one user wrote.

"No wonder they were so quick to conclude he died at the time, it's all fake," another said.

However, the image has been published in reports and social media posts since 2012.

Market photo A reverse image search on Google found a corresponding image published in a report by the South Korean newspaper Maeil Economy on May 3, 2012 ( archived link ). It attributed the photo to a tweet from the Seoul mayor's spokesperson.

According to the report, the photo was taken when Park inspected markets in Seoul disguised as a foreign tourist to investigate price gouging targeted at foreigners.

"Mayor Park visited sites where price gouging aimed at tourists was frequent, pointed out problems with official crackdowns and ordered the strict application of the maximum punishment allowed by law," the report read.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false social media posts (left) and the corresponding photo published by Maeil Economy in 2012 (right):

The same photo was also published by the South Korean media outlet NewsEdu, which also carried a different photo of Park posted by the account of the Seoul mayor's spokesperson ( archived link ).

The image was also posted in multiple forum posts about the mayor published years before his death, including here and here (archived links here and here ).

A separate keyword search found another photo of Park at the same market taken by Newsis, also a South Korean media outlet, on May 2, 2012 ( archived link ).

AFP geolocated the image in the false posts to Seoul's Namdaemun Market, a popular tourist destination in the East Asian country ( archived link ).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the Maeil Economy photo (left), the Newsis photo (centre), and Google Street View of the Namdaemun market (right), with matching features marked in red by AFP:

The exterior of the building behind Park is identical in all three photos, while the Newsis photo additionally shows lettering on the building's window that corresponds with Google Street View.