North Korea's epic Photoshop fail?

It is a picture which was supposed to show the might of the North Korean army; one problem – it has been accused of being an epic Photoshop fake.

The North Korean propaganda campaign has become increasing aggressive over the last couple of weeks.

Earlier this week it repeated threats to target US military bases, a move dismissed as designed to raise tensions and intimidate.

And an image of hovercrafts landing on a beach during a military exercise was released by the North Korean Central News Agency [KCNA} and picked up by other news agencies this week, reports The Telegraph.

The image released by North Korean news agency, KCNA, which appears to show hovercraft have been copied and pasted.
The image released by North Korean news agency, KCNA, which appears to show hovercraft have been copied and pasted.

However, news agencies killed off distribution of the image with the respected Agence France-Presse insisting ‘excessive digital alteration’ had taken place.

The AFP photo editor, Eric Baradat, told The Telegraph "various anomalies" had taken place.

“Usually a very simple examination with our software dismisses KCNA pictures but they tend to be better with Photoshop recently,” he said.

Writing in Atlantic magazine, Alan Taylor believes at least two and possibly three of the hovercraft have been copied and pasted on. While another craft was suspicious because of its "soft edges, lack of visible wake, and color oddities".