After North Korea blew up roads and railways linking it to the South, footage from China was misrepresented in posts claiming it showed bridges that Pyongyang had destroyed. The video shows clips of planned bridge demolitions in China’s central provinces of Jiangxi and Hunan.
“On October 15, 2024, North Korea forcibly blew up routes linking it to South Korea. Earlier, on October 9, the North stated that it ‘will completely cut off links and start the construction of a military fortification project,” read the caption to a video posted on X on October 17, 2024.
The video comprised three clips of bridge demolitions, with overlaid text that said it showed “North Korea blowing up key transport routes to the South”.
The same video was also shared on TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin.
It was shared after Pyongyang blew up roads and railways linking it to the South (archived link).
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the move was “an inevitable and legitimate measure” in keeping with North Korea’s constitution, which “clearly defines the ROK (South Korea) as a hostile state”.
Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since the North’s leader Kim Jong Un defined Seoul as his country’s “principal enemy” in January and said Pyongyang was no longer interested in reunification.
The video circulating online, however, does not show bridges blown up by North Korea; it shows controlled demolitions in China in September 2021 and July 2023.
Footage of North Korean soldiers blowing up roads linking the country to the South has been released by South Korea’s military (archived link).
Jiangxi demolition
A reverse image search on Google and subsequent keyword searches found part of the falsely shared footage corresponds to a video uploaded on Douyin on July 19, 2024.
According to the Douyin video’s caption, it shows the demolition of the Jishui Bridge in the city of Ji’an in central Jiangxi Province.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the of the video falsely shared on X (left) and the Douyin video shared in July 2024 (right):
The Douyin user, who lists themselves as located in Jiangxi, has frequently shared aerial footage of Ji’an City and a watermark — the Chinese character for “cloud” — can be seen in all their images.
The video (left) also corresponds to Google Maps’ satellite imagery (right) of a bridge across the Ganjiang River in Ji’an (archived link):
The China Communications Construction Company, which conducted the demolition, also posted a video of the bridge being destroyed, as shown below:
According to local media, the bridge — which had structural damage — was demolished on the morning of July 19 (archived link).
Hunan footage
Additional reverse image and keyword searches found the third clip in the falsely shared video corresponds to footage posted on Douyin on September 17, 2021.
The Douyin video was captioned, “The successful demolition of the Yandian Bridge”.
The bridge crossed the Lishui River in China’s central Hunan province (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Douyin video from September 2021 (right):
AFP geolocated the bridges to the county of Lixian in Changde city and found Google Maps’s satellite imagery showing the aftermath of the demolition (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shown in the Douyin video (left) and its corresponding location on Google Maps satellite imagery (right):
The Changde City government said the bridge was torn down to make way for another project on the river and published its own footage of the demolition (archived link).
Local media Hunan Today also published footage of the demolition in September 2021 (archived link here).
