Did South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol make a "confession of conscience" video to the public? No, that's not true: The Korean government confirmed that the footage was edited, and police investigated the users who uploaded the doctored video.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by @gom0429 on February 22, 2024. The video is a 53-second recording entitled (translated from Korean to English by Lead Stories staff) "President Yoon Suk Yeol's Confession of Conscience Speech." The caption read (as translated):
To my fellow citizens, I, Yoon Suk Yeol, am a man who enforced laws that harassed the people. The incompetent and corrupt Yoon Suk Yeol government practiced special privileges, foul play, injustice, and corruption.
I ruined the Republic of Korea and made the people suffer by clinging to an ideology that deviated from common sense.
The Yoon Suk Yeol government claims to be for the common people, but its incompetence and corruption have driven the self-employed, small business owners, and the homeless people into despair.
In my Yoon Suk Yeol dictionary, there is political revenge but no livelihood for the people.
Thank you.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Feb 27 16:13:57 2024 UTC)
The first version of the video appeared on TikTok on November 23, 2023, as reported by the local press quoting the investigation (archived here) on February 27, 2024. The People's Power Party reported the video to the police in February 2024 (archived here). The government asked the Korea Communications Standards Commission to delete and block the video, which it did on February 23, 2024 (archived here), making the original video untraceable.
Several accounts have republished it with the original title (as translated) "President Yun's Fictionalized Conscience Speech." The character "가상으로 꾸며본," which Lead Stories staff translates as "made virtually," already makes it clear that this is a fake video. It was constructed by the user splicing together different parts of an electoral campaign speech (archived here) held by the then-presidential candidate on February 23, 2022, as reported by the Seoul Metropolitan Police in February 2024 (archived here).
At a press conference (archived here) on February 26, 2024, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Cho Ji-ho, said (as translated):
'We have received an ID that appears to have uploaded a video. We are currently conducting a search and seizure [of the server of the company that issued the ID].'
The National Assembly recently passed the Public Official Election Act (archived here), banning deepfake or edited videos created with artificial intelligence for 90 days before election day. Article 82-8 (archived here) of the Public Official Election Act in Korean reads (as translated):
Article 82-8: Election campaigns using deepfake videos
No person shall produce, edit, distribute, screen, or post virtual sounds or images that are difficult to distinguish from the real ones, which are produced using artificial intelligence technology for election campaigns starting from 90 days before the election day.
Where a person produces, edits, distributes, displays, or publishes a deepfake video for an election campaign outside the period referred to in paragraph (1), that person shall display the relevant matters on the deepfake video as prescribed by the rules of the National Election Commission so that the relevant information can be clearly recognized as virtual information created by artificial intelligence technology.
According to the Maeil Business Newspaper, the violation is punishable by up to seven years in prison or a fine of 10 million to 50 million won ($7,482 to $37,420).
