North Korea, Nigeria And Fake News

Aclaim has been circulating online that North Korea leader, Kim Jung Un expressed his interest in re-colonizing two West African countries, Nigeria and Ghana. The claim was first published by an obscure news website abiapulse.com, which apparently tried to shore up the veracity of the story by naming Al Jazeera as the source of the statement allegedly made by the North Korean leader. The report was further given prominence on another website,Spynigeria.ng.

“They (Nigeria and Ghana) have all the natural resources in abundance to make them the most important and sought-after countries in the world but corruption is a major problem and a curse to them. Give me just a year and I will transform these two countries into first class countries that will attract businesses all over the world. Nigeria should give in; Ghana should give in and let us colonize them for the second time so they will eventually learn how to run a country.”

CDD fact checkers ran an integrity check on the entire claim with a view to determining if such a statement was actually made by the North Korean leader.

To do so, our fact checkers searched through Al Jazeera, a recognized global news network, while similar searches were conducted on several other globally reputed news agencies to see if such statement was reported. Our findings indicate no such news item was published, broadcast or promoted on Al Jazeera. The claim by the websites that the North Korea leader stated his interest to colonize the two West African countries, is fake news. CDD calls on the public to beware of the several forms and strands of fake news, misinformation and disinformation making the rounds, especially as Nigeria counts down to the 2019 polls. Obscure news sources must be treated with utmost circumspection; news from these sources must therefore be verified before sharing.