Biden photo shared with baseless claim about 'his reaction to 2024 South Korean election'

An old photo of US President Joe Biden has been shared with a false claim it shows his reaction after being informed of "fraud" in South Korea's election held on April 10, 2024 -- hours after opposition parties won a landslide victory in the poll. The image -- captured by the Associated Press news agency -- was taken during the US Democratic Party presidential primary in 2020.

The image of Biden on the phone was shared here on April 11, 2024.

"Biden informed of a parliamentary election fraud in South Korea," reads the Korean-language text below the photo. "The photo was abruptly released by the US Department of Defense. Our ally is at its wits' end."

South Korea's opposition Democratic Party and its allies took close to 190 of the 300 seats in the East Asian country's parliament in a landslide election on April 10 -- according to South Korea's National Election Commission (NEC) (archived link).

The result was a crushing blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol's conservative agenda.

The false claim surfaced amid allegations of election fraud -- echoing similar claims that circulated after the previous 2020 elections. This included allegations of ballot stuffing, however, the NEC denied the accusations and said it had filed a criminal complaint against those who had spread rumours about the election (archived link).

The picture of Biden was also shared alongside a similar false claim in pro-ruling party Facebook groups here, here, here and here.

However, the image was first published in reports in February 2020.

As of April 12, 2024, he has not publicly responded to the election result in South Korea or made accusations of ballot fraud.

Campaign photo

A Google reverse image search found the image corresponded to an Associated Press photo from February 4, 2020, showing Biden wishing a constituent happy birthday on the phone during a campaign rally in New Hampshire (archived link).

He was on a visit to the state for the Democratic primary for the 2020 presidential election, according to the report.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the original Associated Press photo (right):

The same photo was also published in other US reports on Biden's New Hampshire visit, including here and here (archived links here and here).

Biden can be seen wearing the same clothes in C-SPAN footage captured at the same rally (archived link).

A spokesperson from the NEC told AFP on April 11 that it had not observed any signs of vote tampering or manipulation in the 2024 parliamentary elections.