Importance Score: 75 / 100 🔴
Misinformation Spreads Online Amid Devastating South Korea Wildfires
During the unprecedented wildfires in South Korea in March 2025, which ravaged vast areas in the southeast, misinformation circulated online. Social media posts falsely claimed a video depicted a Chinese woman instigating one of the devastating blazes. However, this video, purporting to show an arsonist igniting the South Korea wildfires, actually dates back to October 2022 and involves an arrest for a separate incident of suspected arson in Busan.
The footage, showing plainclothes police officers apprehending a woman apparently attempting to ignite a field, was disseminated on X (formerly Twitter) beginning March 23, 2025.
The video surfaced as southeastern South Korea grappled with multiple wildfires for several days. As of March 30, these fires, the nation’s most extensive and lethal on record, had tragically resulted in thirty fatalities.
Korean-language text overlaid on the video questioned, “Why on earth is she doing this? The arrest of arsonist at Hwamyeong Eco Park,” attributing the footage to Busan police.
The caption accompanying the clip falsely asserted the woman was “Chinese,” and speculated, “How could she set a wildfire in broad daylight unless she is a spy?”
Further amplifying the misinformation, it suggested she ignited the fire to sow social discord, implying it related to a pending court decision concerning President Yoon, referencing a matter before South Korea’s Constitutional Court.
Screenshot of the false post on X, captured on March 28, 2025
Similar posts also shared the video across various platforms including YouTube, Threads, and Facebook. This wave of misinformation occurred amidst a resurgence of anti-Chinese sentiment following President Yoon’s controversial attempt to impose martial law.
President Yoon defended his brief suspension of civilian governance by alleging that external forces, North Korea, and anti-state elements were collaboratively undermining national security and sovereignty.
He further accused unidentified Chinese individuals of utilizing a drone to photograph Seoul’s intelligence agency headquarters, as well as a US aircraft carrier docked in Busan.
However, as of March 31, no official reports had substantiated claims of the March 2025 wildfires being intentionally started by Chinese individuals.
Police in North Gyeongsang province stated to AFP that they had initiated an investigation into a 56-year-old man suspected of unintentionally starting a fire on March 22 in Uiseong – the region most severely affected, with 12,800 hectares of woodland impacted – while tending to his grandparents’ gravesites.
The interior ministry also indicated that “sparks from a brush cutter” were responsible for initiating some of the fires. High winds and exceptionally dry conditions, exacerbated by months of below-average rainfall in the southeast following South Korea’s hottest year on record in 2024, further fueled the flames.
Original Video Related to 2022 Busan Arson Case
A keyword search on YouTube revealed the same video footage was published in October 2022 by South Korean news outlet Hello TV News.
Screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the same footage posted on YouTube in October 2022 (right)
According to a news report by South Korean broadcaster YTN, the video depicts plainclothes officers – conducting surveillance at a Busan ecopark due to prior fire incidents – apprehending a woman who had placed a “paper towel saturated in cooking oil” in a field.
Yonhap News Agency reported that the arson suspect received a suspended prison sentence in May 2023, with the woman’s dementia considered a mitigating circumstance.
Crucially, no local media reports covering the case identified the woman as a Chinese national, further highlighting the falsity of the online claims linking the Busan incident to the recent South Korea wildfires.