November 2, 2023

An Oct. 22 Facebook post suggests that the media has ignored a recent historic moment: North and South Korea’s leaders meeting in the demilitarized zone between the two countries.

“History made again,” the post said. “This gave me chills. You won’t see this on the television or hear about it on the radio. We the people all across the world want peace not war!”

A TikTok video shared in the post includes the text: “New history: Kim Jong Un shakes hands with South Korean leader as they both cross borders for the first time.”

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

You might not see this on TV today because it’s not new history. It happened in April 2018, and it was widely covered in the media.

The TikTok video gives this away. The footage in it comes from The Guardian, which posted it on YouTube on April 26, 2018.

Here’s a sampling of TV and radio news headlines about the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in:

  • From CNBC: “Smiling and holding hands, the leaders of the two Koreas meet at historic summit”
  • From CBS News: “Kim Jong Un walks across border to meet South Korean president”
  • From ABC News: “North Korea’s Kim Jong Un crosses DMZ line for historic meeting with South Korea”
  • From NPR: “In South Korea, summit with North Korea is greeted with hope — and skepticism”

We rate claims this is new history that the media didn’t cover False.

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.

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Ciara O'Rourke is a contributing writer for PolitiFact. Previously, Ciara covered local government and public safety for the Austin American-Statesman and fact-checked elected officials and…
Ciara O'Rourke

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