North Korea's rhetoric might be getting increasingly bellicose, but it's now being undercut by what might be a Photoshop gaffe.
The Agence France Presse recently released a photo from North Korean state media that appears to depict hovercraft at a beach on the country's east coast and marines during a training exercise on March 25.
The Atlantic Wire's Alan Taylor stumbled across the image while researching a story about North Korea's recent war threats and brought it to the attention of AFP, claiming that "at least two, possibly three hovercraft appear to have been pasted into the scene."
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This picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on March 26, 2013 and taken on March 25, 2013 shows the landing and anti-landing drills of KPA Large Combined Units 324 and 287 and KPA Navy Combined Unit 597 at an undisclosed location on North Korea's east coast. (AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS)
In his post, Taylor investigates the possible North Korean photo manipulation in detail. However, the Atlantic wasn't the only outlet to raise criticism about the photo.
The Telegraph pointed out that "at least half the boats were throwing up the same spray of water and the weather was suspiciously mild compared with other images from the exercises."
AFP has since pulled the photo, "due to evidence of tampering," according to the Atlantic.
This is the most recent piece of North Korean propaganda to make headlines in the West, but the coverage probably hasn't had the effect Pyongyang intended.
Earlier this week, a photo appearing to show "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Un inspecting the "latest combat and technical equipments" was ridiculed by social and mainstream media alike.
Another bizarre piece of North Korean propaganda released in February featured a video dream sequence in which a man flies around the world in a space shuttle and visits a razed U.S. city. It was set to the backdrop of the song "We Are The World."
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