Fake image portraying murder suspect as foreigner spreads on social media A doctored image purporting to show a murder suspect in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, circulates on social media. (Instagram) A viral image purporting to show a murder suspect on the run has been found to have been altered, prompting confusion over the investigation and renewed concerns over unfounded hostility toward foreign nationals in Korea.South Korean police said Wednesday that an image of the suspect shared widely on Instagram was not authentic. The image, based on surveillance footage of the suspect wearing a mask and a hat, had been altered using artificial intelligence to make the upper part of his face appear clearer.It is not known whether the AI alteration making the suspect seem to not be Korean was deliberate.“The image (shared on social media) was neither provided by police nor obtained during the investigation. Please do not share or distribute unverified images as if they are real,” police warned.The masked assailant in a home invasion and murder case in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, remained at large as of Wednesday, three weeks after the crime occurred on June 10. Police believe the suspect is a man in his 30s or 40s, based on security camera footage, but have yet to identify him because his face was covered and the images are blurry. The actual surveillance footage from a residential building in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, shows the suspect in a murder case involving a suspected home invasion on June 10. (Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency) The fake image, however, has led some people to speculate that the suspect was a foreign resident. Some claimed, without evidence, the man appeared to be a migrant worker from certain parts of the world, prompting criticism over what many have seen as unfounded hostility toward foreigners.Once considered ethnically homogeneous, Korea has been transforming into a multicultural society. As of 2025, 5.4 percent of the country’s 51.1 million population were “foreign residents,” a category that includes foreign nationals, naturalized Koreans born elsewhere and their children.But surveys indicate that many foreign nationals in Korea still experience discrimination. Some 17.4 percent of foreigners in Korea said they had experienced discrimination, according to Ministry of Data and Statistics data released last year.Among foreign students, 27.7 percent said they had experienced unfair treatment due to ethnicity, with 50 percent of them saying it was because of where they came from.Of the survey respondents, Vietnamese students accounted for the largest portion at 36.5 percent, followed by Chinese students at 28.9 percent.