What Alliances, Mr. Ban?

During a recent press conference, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said a couple of curious things:

First he gives the usual platitude about the US and Korea having a more equal relationship:

"The Korea-U.S. alliance is going through a historic turnover," Ban said yesterday in a forum in Seoul. "It is hopeful that the Korea-U.S. alliance should develop into an equally, evenly horizontal relationship stemming from a mutually beneficial standpoint."

Fair enough, Korea's participation in Iraq certainly is a step in the right direction if goal is to move the US-Korean alliance from one of protector and protected to one of equal partners, as is Washington's deference to Seoul on the removal of American forces from Seoul and the delay in withdrawing USFK forces from Korea.

But then Ban turns around and says something that is just plain dumb:

Pointing out that South Korea, in the past has been extremely reliant on the United States, which had overwhelming priority in the country, Ban stressed that today such a relationship is undesirable and Korea is pursuing a cooperative self-reliant national defense.

"But it is favorable and advantageous for us to strengthen our alliances with Japan, China and Russia on the basis of a solid Korea-U.S. alliance," Ban said.

Now, this is interesting.  Korea has alliances with Japan, China and Russia?  Really?  Really?

Minister Ban, just how many Japanese, Russian or Chinese troops do you count on coming to Korea's aid if the Norks get spunky?  How many?  None?  Well then, you can hardly say that they are allies can you? 

Trading partners?  Yes.

Regional Powers?  Yes.

Allies?  No.

I'm no expert on diplomacy, but I suspect that the term 'ally' is something that is actually reserved for nations with which you have an alliance.  Ban's comment comes off as so dumb that I hope it was some error in translation (perhaps the Marmot or Oranckay can tell me).  Otherwise, he has some explaining to do.

(UPDATE:  It seems that it was, in fact, an error in translation (see the comment section).  Uh, nevermind.)

Comments

[Won Joon Choe]

That phrase also struck me as well. Do you know what he said in the original Korean? It could simply be a bad translation.

[non korean]

Maybe he added China as an ally because well......China is an ally of their dear brothers to the North.

[Won Joon Choe]

Was this the Korean version?

http://news.naver.com/news/read.php?mode=LSD&office_id=096&article_id=0000007095&section_id=100&menu_id=100

반 장관은 통일교육협의회 주최 초청특강에서 이렇게 밝히고, "굳건한 한미동맹 바탕 위에 일본, 중국, 러시아 등 3자와의 관계를 발전시키는 것이 우리에게 유리하며 바람직하다"고 말했습니다.

If so, that's just a butchered translation. "Gwan-gae," which should be translated as something like "relations," was erroneously translated as "alliance."

[oranckay]

I did find this:

반 장관은 통일교육협의회 주최 초청특강에서 이렇게 밝히고, "굳건한 한미동맹 바탕 위에 일본, 중국, 러시아 등 3자와의 관계를 발전시키는 것이 우리에게 유리하며 바람직하다"고 말했습니다.

http://news.naver.com/news/read.php?mode=LSD&office_id=096&article_id=0000007095&section_id=100&menu_id=100

Note how except for the "a" word the flow of the sentence quoted is exactly the same as the English in the Herald article.

So, looks like a goofie to me.

Out of habit I'm going to screenshot the Herald article - I'll bet it's going to change in the next 24.

[The Marmot]

On a related note, though, I've been waiting for someone in the [Roh] administration to make just a "verbal miscue." Diplomatic terminology in the post-Cold War era is getting so knotty than its hard to tell what's what. Remember when Roh came back from Russia with some new relationship with Moscow? I don't recall what the phrase was, but I do remember it was just as ugly in Korean as it was in English.

[The Marmot]

Minister Ban, just how many Japanese, Russian or Chinese troops do you count on coming to Korea's aid if the Norks get spunky?

Well, I believe the JCS put the number at 400,000 Chinese, although not much from the Russians.

Oh, you meant South Korea.

[Elysion]

I think it was a mistake in translation...

on one newspage in german the following is stated :

Aussenminister Ban Ki-moon betont Partnerschaft Koreas mit den USA auf gleicher Ebene

Partnerschaft does mean partnership, not alliance...so i think it really depends of your translation of the term gwangye

[Sugar Shin]

Elysion, it's "Außenminister", even after the orthography reform ;-)

Reminds me of "partnership in leadership" by Bush Senior. Those were the days, when the US-German relationship was blooming...

[Won Joon Choe]

Unfortunately, the apparent translation error remains:

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/11/10/200411100053.asp