Uri Lawmaker Misquotes U.S. Ambassador on DPRK Peace Offer
by Richardson ~ May 11th, 2007. Filed under: Diplomacy, U.S.-Korea Relations.Uri representative Kim Jong-yul, who attended a meeting on Wednesday with other Uri members and U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow, translated into Korean and released a transcript claiming that:
The U.S. “is prepared to sign a treaty to officially end the Korean War and build a permanent peace regime (on the Korean Peninsula) ahead of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in September,” Vershbow said, according to a transcript translated into Korean and released by Kim.
The problem with that is that it’s wrong:
The U.S. Embassy, however, denied the idea of a peace treaty in the coming months.
“There was no mention of APEC during the talk (with Uri Party lawmakers)… The materials that are newsworthy were almost all misquoted,” an embassy official said, requesting anonymity under embassy policy. (emphasis added)
How or why did Kim misquote Vershbow? None of the plausible possibilities are very flattering for Kim; either he didn’t understand what was said at the meeting (heard what he wanted to hear), or he just fabricated the quote. Either he was confused or lying.
May 11th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Or Vershbow was saying that off-record and had to deny it when Kim went public.
May 11th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I’d categorize that under the less plausible possibilities.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I’m leaning towards the “misquoting” explanation. I’ve seen that happen way too many times. The most recent case was an American academic who denied quotes attributed to him in a Korean media news report about Beyond the Bamboo Groves author Yoko Watkins. Having read the ridiculous quotes in the original Korean news report, I believe that they were fabricated. Blogger and commenter Jodi has also complained on her website about Korean newspapers making up quotes for her.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Sonagi,
I’ve been waiting for you to start a blog. Will that happen?
May 11th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Are you flattering me or telling me in a nice way that if I have something to say, I should do it on my own bandwidth?
May 11th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
The nicer option! (by which I mean flattering you) To tell the truth, I’d not thought about it being taken the other way.
May 11th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Sonagi rocks! I very strongly hope her 4th graders out in VA appreciate how much talent, experience, compassion and wisdom they’re being exposed to on a daily basis.
May 11th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Back on topic, misquoting makes the most sense to me as I saw tons of it in Seoul - and Korean media are not enthusiastic fact checkers, needless to say…
At the same time, given the drift of US policy of late (BDA etc) Joshua’s suspicions about Vershbow are, sadly, not misplaced.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Didn’t know I had a fan club!