The picture was shared hours after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture on January 1, 2024, triggering tsunami waves more than a metre high.
At least 62 people died while over 31,000 people were in shelters.
Warnings of much larger waves proved unfounded, and Japan lifted all tsunami warnings the following day.
South Korea also experienced minor tsunamis following the earthquake, particularly parts of its east coast including Busan (archived link). The Busan Regional Meteorological Administration said there was no need to issue a tsunami warning, however (archived link).
The same picture also circulated elsewhere on Facebook here, on Korean online forum Arca here, and on Ilbe, another forum which has shared far-right posts, here.
However, the image has been altered, with a photo of a former South Korean president inserted into a picture of a stream in Busan.
Photo from Busan
Reverse image searches on Google found the photo has circulated since at least September 2017 on Ilbe, a website whose users are known to share right-wing memes, including doctored images of late South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun to mock him (archived link).
The image circulating in January 2024 posts is a slightly cropped version of the 2017 picture.
The Ilbe post, which was shared as a joke, makes a reference to Busan, a city in the southern part of South Korea.
Using Google Street View, AFP was able to geolocate the structures seen on the image to the Pusan National University subway station, located near Oncheon stream (archived link).
The altered pictures and the Google Street View image share matching features, such as the light green wall of the subway station, the shape and colour of the pillars, a descending ramp and stones next to it.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared on Facebook (top left), the picture on Ilbe (top right) and the Google Street View image (bottom), with matching features marked by AFP:
Ex-president’s holiday photo
Another keyword search on Google found the photo of the man in the altered image is taken from one of the pictures published by Roh’s presidential library in 2008 (archived links here and here).
It shows Roh falling off the sled on a hill in Uiyaji Wind Village, in South Korea’s Gangwon province, on July 21, 2008.
Some of the photos were also published on another page on the presidential library website (archived link).
They were taken when the former president was spending his summer vacation at Uiyaji Wind Village in July 2008, the page says.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the altered image (left) and the original photo published by Roh’s presidential library (right), with parts showing Roh marked by AFP:
AFP has debunked misinformation about the 2024 earthquake in Japan here and here.