After South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae-myung likened the vacated Yongsan workspace of his impeached predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol to a tomb, an old photo was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed the office. The photo and a similar image circulated in February 2009 in a post and news article about an electronics company that reportedly relocated out of Seoul during a labour dispute.<\/h3>\n
“The presidential office left in complete chaos,” reads part of a Korean-language\u00a0X post<\/a> shared on June 4, 2025.<\/p>\n It features a screenshot of what appears to be another post sharing a panorama image of an empty office space.<\/p>\n The post was shared shortly after South Korea’s newly elected<\/a> President Lee Jae-myung said the presidential office in Seoul’s Yongsan district “feels like a tomb” during his first press conference<\/a> (archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n “There’s no one here. Not even staff to provide writing tools. No computers. No printers. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” he said.<\/p>\n The next day, Lee’s Democratic Party accused<\/a> the administration of his impeached predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol of sabotaging the transition of power, describing the compound as a “crime scene” that had been “cleared out to destroy evidence” (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Yoon is on trial on charges of insurrection over his botched declaration of martial law, which saw him impeached, and faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the X post taken June 5, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The same image was also shared in similar posts on South Korean online forums\u00a0Ppomppu<\/a>, Mimint<\/a>, Wassada<\/a> and Gasengi.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n “They aren’t even humans,” read a comment on one of the posts, while another said: “Truly, truly despicable. They should all be prosecuted.”<\/p>\n But neither Lee’s office nor the Democratic Party have released any official photos of the presidential office in Yongsan before his administration moved in.<\/p>\n Moreover, the circulating photo has been online since at least 2009.<\/p>\n A reverse image search<\/a> on Google traced the picture to a post from February 27, 2009 on a South Korean forum<\/a>\u00a0(archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n The post says the photo shows the office of Seoul-based Jaty Electronics, and claims the firm abruptly relocated to Incheon during a labour dispute with employees.<\/p>\n “The owner fled overnight,” claimed the poster<\/span>, who said they were an employee.<\/p>\n‘Office relocation’<\/h3>\n