Park had ruled South Korea with an iron fist for more than 15 years when he was shot and killed by his head of intelligence and trusted aide Kim Jae-gyu at a dinner in 1979.<\/p>\n
An image attached to the post shows what appears to be a certificate<\/a> honouring “a person of distinguished service to the state”, which is awarded to those who made significant contributions to the country ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n The beneficiary of the Korean-language certificate —\u00a0 stamped and signed by Lee and dated July 24, 2026 — is “the late Kim Jae-gyu”.<\/p>\n Text superimposed over the certificate reads: “Wow, (they) designated Kim Jae-gyu a person of distinguished service to the state? Everybody, did you know about this?”<\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post captured on August 25, 2026, with a red X added by AFP<\/p>\n Park and Kim are highly divisive figures in South Korea.<\/p>\n Park took power<\/a> in a 1961 military coup and established a regime that transformed South Korea into a manufacturing powerhouse, but ruthlessly crushed opposition ( archived link<\/a>).\u00a0Conservatives revere him as the architect of South Korea’s economic rise, while critics denounce his authoritarian rule.<\/p>\n Kim, meanwhile, is viewed by many conservatives as a traitor but regarded by some of Park’s critics as the person who ended Park’s dictatorship.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2020, Kim’s family\u00a0 appealed<\/a> to the Seoul High Court to revisit Kim’s case ( archived link<\/a>). They argued that Kim killed the president to put a stop to his ruthless dictatorship rather than in pursuit of power, and his actions did not amount to treason.<\/p>\n They also said Kim was tortured during questioning and that he did not receive a fair trial.<\/p>\n The court\u00a0 reopened<\/a> the case in February 2025 and the retrial is currently underway ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n The image of the certificate was also shared in similar\u00a0 Threads<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and X posts<\/a>, with commenters voicing outrage over the purported honour for Kim.<\/p>\n “Doesn’t it amount to practically encouraging assassination of a president?” asked one, while others accused Lee of being a communist or North Korean sympathiser.<\/p>\n The certificate circulating on social media, however, was not awarded to the former president’s assassin.<\/p>\n ‘Completely different person’<\/p>\n The circulating certificate lists the recipient’s birthdate as “February 15, 1930” but former spy chief Kim was born four years earlier in 1926.<\/p>\n His actual birthdate is posted on the website<\/a> of the association of former lawmakers as before becoming the head of the country’s intelligence agency, Kim was a lawmaker ( archived link<\/a>). It is also included in an\u00a0 indictment statement<\/a> published by a local newspaper in December 1979, when prosecutors formally charged Kim with murder and treason ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Kang Yun-jin, vice minister of patriots and veterans affairs<\/a>, said on Instagram<\/a> on August 25 that the certificate belonged to another Kim Jae-gyu — a soldier who died fighting for South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War (archived\u00a0 here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n “He is a different person with the same name as the former head of the intelligence agency Kim Jae-gyu,” she wrote. “I’d like to confirm that this is a completely different person.”<\/p>\n A spokeswoman of the ministry confirmed the clarification was posted on the vice minister’s account.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the vice minister of patriots and veterans affairs’ Instagram post<\/p>\n The certificate shared in the false posts also differs from the one shared by the vice minister.<\/p>\n It has a different document ID number in the top-left corner while the shape of the emblem at the top is dissimilar and is missing the two flanking phoenixes.<\/p>\n Screenshot comparison of the certificate shared on the false post(L) and the original certificate shared on the vice minister’s Instagram account, with visual differences marked in red by AFP<\/p>\n Lee Sang-hee, a Seoul lawyer who is defending Kim in his retrial, also rejected the “absurd” claim that Kim had been awarded the national honour.<\/p>\n She also noted in a phone call with AFP on August 26, that the law<\/a> bars those convicted of treason from being listed as persons of distinguished service to the state ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n AFP has previously<\/a> debunked false claims<\/a> involving former president Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"<span>Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/afp_factcheck_my_711\/ed3fb6de38cc90b3d63873315d630d66.jpg\"\/)
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