Did South Korea's current government give a certificate of appreciation to the pastor who hoisted a Japanese flag out of his window on Independence Movement Day? No, that's not true: the certificate was given for the pastor's previous fundraising activity on behalf of candidate Yoon Suk-yeol who was elected president in 2022, and it was not given for raising a Japanese flag on a day remembered for Korean opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by @decisionbeyond (archived here) on TikTok on March 26, 2024, with a caption, translated from Korean into English by Lead Stories staff, that reads:
I heard that Yoon government gave the certificate of appreciation to the pastor who hung a Japanese flag out of his window on Independence Movement day?! We should give 200+ MP seats to the opposition and impeach Yoon!!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Mar 29 05:15:50 2024 UTC)
The author of the video misrepresents a news report (archived here) that says the pastor, Lee Jung-woo, received a certificate of appreciation in March 2022 for his active participation in Yoon's and his party's fundraising campaign in the lead-up to the 2022 election, which Yoon won.
In 2023, the pastor hoisted a Japanese flag from his window on Korea's Independence Movement Day (March 1), when traditionally South Koreans hoist the national flag from their homes to mark the occasion, and the National Liberation Day (August 15). But on March 1, 2023 (archived here), Pastor Lee hoisted a Japanese flag on the balcony of his apartment in Sejong.
His act was publicly condemned, and when the pastor told the press (archived here) that he was a ruling conservative People Power Party member, the party kickedhimout (archived here, here, and here) to avoid embarrassment. The claim that he received a certificate of appreciation from the People Power Party is highly misleading and harmful in this context since it also claims the pastor got his award from President Yoon's government, whilst it was the party election campaign that issued it.
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