Hoax Alert: South Korean Passport Doodle Story Was Fake

The story that a Chinese man is allegedly stuck in South Korea because his four-year-old son drew on his passport is a hoax, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The confirmation that it is a fake story came from an official of the Chinese embassy in Seoul who told Korea Real Time the photo where the kid allegedly doodled is fake. He added that even if such an incident happened, the South Korean immigration service would not prevent the holder of such kind of document from leaving the country.

The story became viral on the Internet as it was shared on social media sites, including Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

According to the reports, the child used a black felt tip pen to make his father's eyes and lips bigger and he also drew extra facial hair on his head, plus some animals, people and flowers on the page where the vital information of the passport bearer is found.

The reports identified the father as Chen, who tried to board his flight back to China but was allegedly stopped by South Korean immigration personnel. While his family was said to be able to leave Seoul, he was left behind and used a Weibo post to seek help.

Among the things that makes the doodle suspicious is that the name, signature and passport number of the document are unidentifiable, while the felt markings didn't smudge.

Kotaku, a Web site for computer games, noted that some of the intricate shapes of the doodle were not likely the work of a four-year-old child.