The manipulated news broadcast shared online is “North Korean order to Southern agents”

A famous video criticized by a right-wing student group for former South Korean President Joe-In has surfaced in social media posts claiming it was a “direction” from agents from North Korea to the south. It abused videos from North Korean state media, from an old report on New Year celebrations that did not mention South Korea.

“one North Korea directs Jeondaehyeop, “Reading April 18, 2025 Korean Language Facebook post, referring to the late Korean student organization in the 1980s Relations with North Korea (Archive link).

It continued that when North Korea takes over, members of the group will be “first to be shot” because they will no longer serve any purpose.

It also includes a nearly six-minute video that appears to be broadcast by North Korean media and is scattered with various images and clips from Korean society.

First, the host said that South Korea’s pro-North Korean student activists “finally seized power” and allegedly gained control over all southern governments and civil institutions.

The host seemed to say: “There are only two goals, eliminating the US military and conservative opposition in South Korea.”

He allegedly went on to say that former leader Moon Jae-In’s administration plans to “destroy South Korea’s economy” and “Under the Democratic Party’s leadership, the complete elimination of South Korea’s liberal democracy has paved the way for a 100-year dictatorship.”

The name of Jeondaehyeop can be seen at the top corner of the clip.

Screenshot of fake clips shared on Facebook on April 25

During his five-year term, Dirty Moon held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – a policy critics say has seen Seoul make too many concessions to its willful neighbors (archived here and here).

The same video is shared with the same propositions of various Facebook groups that support South Korea’s right-wing politicians.

AFP has debunked false or misleading narratives often shared by these groups that accuse the Moon and other liberal politicians of obeying the communist regimes in North Korea and China.

Comments on the clip show that some users believe in the video Represents the actual orders from North Korea to the South.

“This country [South Korea] “If the orders of North Koreans are openly circulated, they will definitely be in a serious strait,” one user wrote.

Another article about the Southern spy agency wrote: “This is direct evidence of the Democrats in the North and the North. Why doesn’t the National Intelligence Agency investigate this?”

North Korean lens

However, the combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found that shots used to manipulate the anchors of video match the New Year playback of North Korea CCTV in January 2014 (archive link).

The initial broadcast showed newscasters reporting various ceremonies held across the country to mark the new year, as well as greetings Kim Jong-un received from various foreign missions.

The video did not mention Jeondaehyeop or South Korea.

A keyword search on Google found that the video’s narrative was linked to a statement posted on its website by another student group (also known as Jeondaehyeop) on July 11, 2019 on a Korean company (archive link).

The name of the left-wing group that has disappeared since the 1980s, the contemporary Jeondaehyeop has the opposite ideology According to its official website (Archived Link), it aims to “build a free, fair society” by opposing “incubator politicians guided by anti-civilization and anti-rational principles.”

One of its members was prosecuted during his term on the moon for holding large posters on various university campuses criticizing him as a spy in China, despite being later acquitted by local courts (link to archive).