A video is doing the rounds on social media purportedly showing the North Korean military band performing the popular song ‘I Want to Break Free’ by the English band Queen. The video also features North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un in the audience.
The above post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above video, and found it to be doctored.
Closely observing the video, we have noticed the singers’ lip movement not in sync with the song.
Running a keyword search, we found the same video on YouTube posted on January 10, 2023, by a verified channel ‘Lars von Retriever’.
The channel’s About section reads: “I’m just a dog trying to Make The World Metal and Rock Again. Iconic metal and rock songs. Irony, memes, metal,” suggesting that the video in question is a piece of satire.
The video description reads: “Very rare footage of the North Korean girl group ‘Moranbong Band’ and The North Korean Military Chorus”.
Taking a cue from the description, NewsMobile looked up ‘Moranbong Band’ and The North Korean Military Chorus. The result led us to a video, dated March 22, 2020, with a title: “Moranbong Band & State Merited Chorus – The 70th anniversary of The Workers’ Party of Korea”
On comparing the two videos, we noticed visual similarities, however, nowhere does the audio match with Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’.
Using the Shazam app, we found the original audio track used in the video posted on YouTube on December 7, 2022.
In conclusion, the above information establishes that the video in question is doctored using editing software.
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