Steven Aftergood passes along a little humor from the NORKs, via Xinhua News Agency:
“DPRK Slams U.S. Senator’s Hardline Remarks” — Xinhua headline
XinhuaWednesday, December 19, 2007 T09:26:37Z
PYONGYANG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) — The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday slammed U.S. Senator Brown Back for his remarks that Washington should not soften its policy on Pyongyang.
The DPRK’s remarks came after Senator Back presented a bill, claiming that Washington should not delist the DPRK as a “sponsor of terrorism” and lift the application of the “Trading with the Enemy Act.”
“Such conservative hardliners as Back calculate they can throw a hurdle in the way of the process of the six-party talks (on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue) and the DPRK-U.S. relations,” said the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Nothing is, however, more foolish than this,” the agency said.
“With no desperate effort can the U.S. conservative hardliners stem the trend of the times towards detente over the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula,” it added.(Description of Source: Beijing Xinhua in English — China’s official
news service for English-language audiences (New China News Agency))
Seriously, Chris Hill has to work with these guys. VOTE CHRIS HILL AS ARMS CONTROL PERSON OF THE YEAR!
This reminds me of the hilarious book, Here Speeching American – or, for that matter, the crazy attempts at English on T-shirts in Japan.
It seems that DPRK is getting so smart that it can make difference between doves and hawks. Obviously, it just could not afford losing the opportunity to better its relations with Washington.
If you look at the official English language Korean Central News Agency website (http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2007/200712/news12/20.htm#2)
they have the name correctly written as Brownback throughout. It is sort of like a game of telephone, from Korean to Chinese then into English, with someone probably mistaking a two character translation into Chinese of Brownback as a first and last name. Anyways, look how a small mistake like this from a third party gives North Korean negotiators less standing. I think it just shows how many variables need to be thought of in any international negotiation