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A South Korean legislator complained this week that the Central
Intelligence Agency has repeatedly misspelled the name of South Korean
President Roh.
"Although the official spelling of the President is 'Roh Moo-Hyun,' it
is written as 'No Moo-Hyun' on the web site of the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency, which was updated in May," said Sohn Bong-suk of
the Millenium Democratic Party.
"It was misspelled in last year's world fact book, which the CIA
publishes every year, and still is not corrected."
The proper transliteration of foreign names is a serious challenge for
U.S. intelligence, particularly since there is often no single, unique
English spelling of non-Western names.
The problem was anticipated 35 years ago by Mel Brooks (the next DCI?)
in an episode of the TV show Get Smart that featured a Chinese villain
known as "The Claw" because of his prosthetic arm with a hook at the
end.
Since The Claw stereotypically pronounced the letter "l" like the
letter "r," secret agent Maxwell Smart thought his name was The Craw.
The bad guy helplessly attempted to correct him: "Not The Craw -- The
CRAW!"
See "President Roh Becomes President No," published in Chosun Ilbo,
South Korea's largest daily newspaper, July 12:
