"You should ask someone who knows Korean to interpret what the transcript on the Yonhapnews link says. And it will become clear where the origina fault lies.

"

I speak Korean, and I did read the transcript and listen to Bush's interpreter speak Korean in a video clip available at the White House website. After the first clarification, Bush did say, "a peace treaty to end the Korean War," and the interpreter used the official term "peace treaty" but did not add the phrase "to end the Korean War." That is hardly "whole chunks of speech," and as Richardson pointed out, the two had met for an hour previously. What upset Roh wasn't the fact that the interpreter said "peace treaty" instead of "peace treaty to end the Korean War," (well, duh, that's what peace treaties do – end wars!!!); it was Bush's repeated references to ending KJI's nuclear program as non-negotiable pre-condition. Roh himself acknowledged in the press yesterday that he will not be discussing denuclearization at the summit.

Let's summarize the key points:

1. Bush makes repeated references to KJI giving up his nuclear weapons before any peace treaty is signed.

2. Roh doesn't want to talk about denuclearization because it might spoil KJI's kibun.

Conclusion: Roh threw his head back, laughed, and muttered about KJI and the South Korean people wanting to hear a different answer because he was upset that he wouldn't be bringing a peace treaty on a silver platter as a summit gift.

Jae & R2L,
Bush and Roh met before the televised meeting, as GI Korea points out, and it is almost guaranteed that Roh understood exactly what Bush was talking about.

Roh’s actual (Korean) response bears this out – he said that’s the “same story” and KJI/ROK people want a “different story” or the “next step.”

'Clearly' – by his response in Korean – Roh understood exactly what Bush was saying, and Roh was pushing for a the U.S. to offer NK a peace treaty before denuclearization.

That, gents, is the real issue.

A translating error did not cause that; an error in thinking by Roh did.

Signing off for the night…

Roh had a K-E female interpreter speaking for him, from the Korean government's side.

Bush had a E-K male interpreter speaking for him, from the state Department. I work in foreign policy and I know this for a fact. So Bush's interpreter started the whole mess by leaving out chunks of Bush's statements that Roh wanted to hear.

Now, even given that, Roh's behavior was a serious faux pas.

Yonhapnews is like the AP of Korea–thus their factual reporting sticks to the facts. You should ask someone who knows Korean to interpret what the transcript on the Yonhapnews link says. And it will become clear where the origina fault lies.

Now, as for the President's second request for clarification, it would have been a major gaffe had the Korean translator translated it word-for-word there.

Well, I guess I'll leave off my own little exchange with Richardson on this note. Any third party comments?

I don't know about what Yonhap said, I went to the Blue House page.

Context is everything.

Here's the link: http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/politics/2007/09/07/0…

Also, check out this article on Yonhapnews which pretty much makes clear that it was the US interpreter who screwed up and started this:
http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/politics/2007/09/09/0…

What I'm referring to the US translator's fudging of President Bush's opening remarks. Here's the proof:

Opening Remarks:

[Bush] “And in our discussions I reaffirmed our government's position that when the North Korean leader fully discloses and gets rid of his nuclear weapons programs, that we can achieve a new security arrangement in the Korean Peninsula, that we can have the peace that we all long for. You and I discussed the Northeast Peace and Security agreement — arrangement, which we support. And so I'm optimistic. There's still more work to be done. But nevertheless, Mr. President, when we have worked together we have shown that it's possible to achieve the peace on the Korean Peninsula that the people long for.”

According to Yonhapnews, this is what the US side’s translator said: “??? ??? ?? ??? ??, ??? ??? ???? ???. ?? ???? ??? ? ????? ?? ???? ? ????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???. ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ? ???? ????. ??? ?? ???(Optimistic)?? ????…??? ??? ??? ?? ? ??? ?? ????.”

But more importantly, the US translator fudged what President Bush had said in response to Pres Roh's first request for clarification:

[Bush] "I said it's up to Kim Jong-il as to whether or not we're able to sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War." (Note: he actually used the phrase "… peace treaty to end the Korean War.")

Again, according to Yonhap, this is how the US interpreter translated this comment: "??? ???? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ????."

This is what provoked the request for second clarification. And, I'm not sure what Richardson's experience is with the conduct of diplomacy, but each side provides its own interpreter to translate into the language of the other side–especially for meetings as important as summits. You can double-check whether I'm correct on this one.