Controversy Over Alleged "Composite" Photo Taken During Kumho Tire Fire
Mayor Park: "Photo Was Taken On-Site... I Was Not Involved in Its Distribution or Creation"
Park Byung-gyu, Mayor of Gwangsan District in Gwangju, released the original photos and shooting information to refute allegations that a photo taken with President Lee Jae-myung during the Kumho Tire Gwangju Plant fire was an "artificial intelligence (AI) synthesis." As claims spread online that the photo was an "AI fabrication," Mayor Park expressed his frustration.
On the 31st, a photo of President Lee Jae-myung during his presidential candidacy and Park Byung-gyu, Mayor of Gwangsan District, Gwangju, visiting the Kumho Tire fire evacuation shelter amid suspicions of AI synthesis was taken. It was shot on May 17 at the gymnasium of Gwangju Women's University.
The controversy began on the morning of the 31st following certain media reports. The issue centered on a photo circulating in KakaoTalk group chats and elsewhere. The photo, taken at the Kumho Tire Gwangju Plant fire evacuation center last May, shows President Lee and Mayor Park squatting next to a citizen and talking. Some pointed out, "The original only had President Lee, and it looks like Mayor Park was added in a composite." While the visit itself was factual, suspicions were raised that the person in the photo was deliberately added.
That afternoon, Mayor Park held an emergency press conference at the Gwangju City Council, stating, "I am being branded as someone who manipulated an event that never happened with AI to involve the President. This is not true." He explained, "On May 17, I was definitely at the Kumho Tire fire evacuation center with President Lee, and the disputed photo was taken on-site by a Gwangsan District official. The shooting time and metadata are also preserved."
The disputed photo shows the visit to the evacuation center at the Universiade Gymnasium of Gwangju Women's University. Some social media posts labeled it a "promotional composite image" or suggested that Mayor Park was involved in its creation. Mayor Park responded, "I have nothing to do with the distribution of the photo. I do not know who made it, nor was I involved in any way. Yet I have been branded as an immoral person who dragged the President into controversy in an instant."
The Gwangsan District Newsletter page featuring President Lee Jae-myung and Gwangsan District Mayor Park Byung-gyu visiting the Kumho Tire fire evacuation shelter last May.
Mayor Park also posted on social media, saying, "I am being vilified nationwide," and emphasized again, "Definitive reporting without fact-checking leaves an administrative leader with wounds that are hard to heal. The photo in question is not an artificial intelligence composite."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
