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By Oh Young-jin
"Until now, the absence of ROK diplomatic missions in the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Estonia in the Balkan region has caused difficulties in providing consular assistance and services…"
You may laugh at this thinking it is a prank, but it is actually the work of professionals ― the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The extract was part of its press release March 19 until the Latvian Embassy in Seoul protested that its country belonged to the Baltic region, not Balkan, and the ministry changed it.
A foreign diplomat told The Korea Times, "The Latvian ambassador was really mad."
"The ministry needs geography lessons."
It was unclear whether the Latvian embassy had to go an extra mile and explain the differences between Baltic and Balkan. The first refers to the three countries as stipulated in the ministry's statement, while the Balkan refers to the areas that mostly belonged to the former Yugoslavia.
The ministry's releases are scrutinized by foreign diplomats daily, so the mistake was much ridiculed by those who read it.
The mistake came on the heels of a series of diplomatic gaffes made during President Moon Jae-in's recent three-day Asian tour.
Moon used an Indonesian greeting during his joint news conference with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad, while getting confused with the greetings for evening and night. Then he proposed a toast at a banquet hosted by Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei, which strictly abides by Islam rules and does not allow alcohol.
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