A video of North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is going viral on the internet with users claiming that it shows him speaking on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
What about the video?: The 33 seconds-long video carried English subtitles of the leader's speech. According to the subtitles, the leader blamed the Biden administration for the Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine conflicts. It purportedly also showed him expressing his support to Donald Trump for the upcoming elections.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
Are these claims true?: No, the video could be traced back to October 2020, which predates the ongoing Israel-Hamas war as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to reports, the video showed the leader speaking at the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers' party.
Kim Jong-un was seen praising the efforts of the army and he even apologised to the people for his failure to guide the country during the coronavirus outbreak.
How did we find out?: A Google Lens search on the keyframes of the video led us to a similar posted on the official YouTube channel of BBC News.
The video was uploaded on 13 October 2020 and showed Kim Jong Un making similar remarks as the viral video.
Its description said that the leader turned emotional while delivering the speech at a military parade.
He thanked the army for their efforts against the pandemic and recent natural disasters.
It should be noted that the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October of this year, whereas Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Taking a hint from this, we performed a keyword search on Google and came across the entire English transcript of Kim Jong Un's speech.
The transcript was available on the website named 'The National Committee of North Korea'.
On going through the entire transcript, we did not find any references made on Israel, Palestine, Hamas, Biden, or Trump.
Other sources: We performed a keyword search on YouTube and came across a longer version of the leader's speech uploaded on an unverified channel named 'Phuong DPRK Daily'.
The video was uploaded on 11 October 2020 and carried English subtitles of the speech.
It was titled, "Kim Jong Un's Speech at Military Parade - 75th Founding Annivers. of Workers' Party of Korea (eng.)"
At around the 3:36 timestamp, the North Korean leader could be heard making similar statements as the viral one.
According to the subtitles, he was heard thanking the army for their effects in handling the epidemic and the after effects of the pandemic.
He added that no one can approach their heroic and patriotic devotion without shedding tears of gratitude.
News reports on Kim Jong-un's speech: A report published in The Guardian said that the North Korean leader issued a rare apology for failing to guide the country through the coronavirus outbreak.
He got emotional and removed his glasses to wipe away tears. This was reportedly an indication of the mounting pressure on his regime.
Kim Jong Un also warned that he would "fully mobilise" his nuclear force if threatened.
Conclusion: Neither is the video recent nor does it show the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, making statements on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. It is clear that the viral video carried wrong subtitles.
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