CIA and State keep saying 'No' to Roh

(Day Twenty-five of the Korean Ministry of of Information and Communications ban)

(NOTE: I am writing this at 8:30 AM in my apartment. Some protesters have already got their loudspeaker protest truck going at Ansan's police HQ across the street.)

Now Koreans have another reason to hit the streets against the evil Americans. The CIA keeps spelling Roh Moo-hyun's name wrong.

Rueters has an article on it.

In an online directory and in its World Fact Book, a standard reference, the CIA spells it "No," rather than "Roh," the Korean leader's preference.

The embassy has sent the CIA three formal requests, one last year and two this year, as part of efforts to get the entire U.S. government to change its spelling, said Jeongsun Suh, the officer in charge of press and culture.

"Up to now, we didn't receive a response," he said.

The State Department also uses the transliteration on its Web site.

I decided to check this out myself. Here is the link to the World Factbook South Korea page (BTW, its a great source of information unless you are looking for WMDs). Sure enough, the CIA misspells Roh's name. Just in case they make the changes the South Koreans are asking for, here is the original text:

Constitution: 17 July 1948

Legal system: combines elements of continental European civil law systems, Anglo-American law, and Chinese classical thought

Suffrage: 20 years of age; universal

Executive branch: chief of state: President NO Mu-hyun (ROH Moo-hyun) (since 25 February 2003)
note: President NO was impeached on 12 March 2004; KO Kun is the acting president

Aside from the need to update the impeachment information, it would be nice if the CIA and State Department went ahead and spelled the man's name the way he wants it spelled. That's just common courtesy. I can appreciate that they have the right spelling in the bracets, so why don't they just make it official?

This is also an issue for folks trying to do online research on Korea or US-Korean relations since someone looking for information on "Roh Moo-hyun" wouldn't some across CIA or State Department sources and folks using "No Moo-hyun" after seeing it spelled like that on US government web pages would miss out on most references to the Korean president.

That's two reasons that I hope this gets fixed quickly.

Comments

[duncanhj@yahoo.com]

Have YOU ever tried to get anything a bureaucracy had written down changed? I can see the request coming in to the CIA office and the entire dept. shiver in bureacratic paralysis

\\\"Do something? With my name on the change? Uhhh...time for lunch, huh?\\\"

[Jokes]

The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists - two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her." The first man said. "You cant be serious. I could never shoot my wife!"The agent replies, "Then you?re not the right man for this job."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. "I tried, but I cant kill my wife." The agent replies, "You dont have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the womans turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didnt tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair."