Is Ma Dong Seok still alive? Passed away claims debunked as posts go viral

South Korean actor Ma Dong Seok is going viral on Facebook, as multiple pages made posts claiming that the popular actor has reportedly passed away.

In the provided pictures, a woman, who is allegedly his wife, Ye Jung Hwa, could be seen attending his funeral. The funeral pictures have gone massively viral on the social media platform, garnering more than 127,000 reactions and over 6,000 comments.

The Facebook posts are fake, as Ma Dong Seok is alive. The images used in the posts are AI-generated. While some users believed the fake news, most called it out in the comment section. They pointed out that such satirical pages write anything for clicks.

"Lol Fake news, I look at the picture, I see something wrong, and Ik the picture is generated by AI lol.. Brooo," one netizen wrote.

"Y'all be doing anything for those clicks lmao," another fan added.

"Ma Dong-seok is alive,hthe rumor of his death is false. In fact, he is still actively working in the entertainment industry and has a successful career," another Facebook user wrote.

Ma Dong Seok's latest series, Twelve, is airing now

The Train to Busan actor's television series Twelve is a fantasy action series. It is written by Kim Bong-han and the actor himself.

Kang Dae-gyu and Han Yun-seon directed the series starring Park Hyung-sik, Seo In-guk, Sung Yoo-bin, Sung Dong-il, Ahn Jihye, Ko Kyu-pil, Kang Mina, Lee Joo-bin, and Regina Lei.

The plot revolves around the heavenly angels who symbolize the twelve zodiac animals, known as the jishin. Tae-san, played by Ma Dong Seok, is the angel symbolizing the tiger. He is the leader of the rest of the celestial beings.

Four angels passed away after a clash with a demonic spirit, and it caused the rest of them to seclude themselves from the humans.

At the start of the action series, the demonic spirit O-gwi, played by Park Hyung-sik, appears, and the eight heavenly beings step forward to protect humanity.

During a press tour on August 20, 2025, Ma Dong Seok told South Korean news outlets that for a long time, he wanted to create a project based on Asian mythology.

The actor stated that the twelve jishins are a common concept throughout Asia, and he believed it would connect with the global audience as well.

"For a long time, I wanted to do a hero movie with colors containing oriental objects. I thought it was an original material because 12 jishin is used in Asian countries and contains Korean charm. If I make it based on this, I think it will be sympathized with both Korean and global, and it will be fresh fun, so I prepared and started [the project]," Ma Dong Seok stated.

Park Hyung-sik stated that acting in a negative role was "refreshing and interesting" for him as he wanted to try it out for some time. Park also shared that all the actors "matched" with each other.

Twelve is currently airing on the television channel KBS2. It is available for streaming on Disney+. Stay tuned for more news regarding Ma Dong Seok.