CLAIM
Images of US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have gone viral on social media with the claim that they were seen holding light sticks which are used by fans of Korean pop (or K-pop). The claims the images are shared with read:
•Korea's President holding EXO light stick Version 2
•US President holding EXO light stick Version 3
EXO is a Korean boyband.
Several social media users have shared the images on Facebook with the same claims.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claims the images are shared with are false. The images have been Photoshopped and do not show the two leaders wielding light sticks.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We reverse searched Moon Jae-in’s image on Yandex which led us to a video published by the Australian newspaper The Age. It’s titled as ‘Moon Jae-in declares victory.’
Consequently, we searched the key words ‘moon jae-in declares victory’ on Google, which led us to an article published by Al Jazeera in 2017.
The image has been attributed to Chung Sung-jun, Getty Images, and is captioned: ‘Moon celebrates after exit polls show him as the winner of South Korea's presidential vote.’ It can be clearly seen that the South Korean President is not holding light sticks.
Further, we reverse searched Trump’s image on Google, which led us to a YouTube video published by NBC News.
The video is from his 2017 inauguration ceremony. In the video, at 12 seconds, a frame showing Trump making the thumbs up sign can be seen. The viral image is a morphed version of the same.
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