Sarah Palin Mistakenly Calls N. Korea an "Ally"

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin signs her new book 'America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag,' Nov. 23, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona.

/ Getty Images

A simple north-south slip of the tongue or not, Sarah Palin's latest gaffe couldn't have come at a worse time for the Tea Party icon, geo-politically speaking.

In a live radio interview Wednesday with equally popular conservative host Glenn Beck, Palin twice referred to North Korea as America's ally and urged President Obama to firmly demonstrate the alliance.

The first reference was the less glaring mistake.

"We're not having a lot of faith that the White House is going to come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea is going to do," Palin told Beck.

It's unclear whether she referenced the correct Korea and simply misused the term "sanction" -- which, as stated, means to approve or validate, or if she meant to say South Korea, the U.S. ally, in reference to any actions that nation may take in retaliation to past or future attacks from the North.

One might even have missed that gaffe, had she not said just seconds later: "Obviously, we gotta stand with our North Korean allies."

Upon hearing that, Beck immediately butted-in to correct the possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate, quickly interjecting, "South Korea."

Palin replied with an almost reflexive, "yeah," but corrected herself in the next remark: "And we're also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes."

Content on the website for Glenn Beck's radio show is members-only, but the audio has been posted on Youtube.

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Palin's remarks come as the Obama administration, and it's ally (South Korea), mull prepare to conduct long-planned naval exercises off the Korean Peninsula. The move is sure to stoke further anger in North Korea, which earlier this week attacked a tiny South Korean island with a barrage of artillery fire, leaving four people dead and more than a dozen wounded.

Palin shot back Thursday with a note on Facebook, which began by calling out gaffes President Obama has made.

"If the media had bothered to actually listen to all of my remarks on Glenn Beck's radio show, they would have noticed that I refer to South Korea as our ally throughout, that I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and that I made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime," Palin wrote in defense of her slip.

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[pmbalele]

Sarah"has a child with Down syndrome, and still has her upbeatness." And that will be her fight if Republicans try to repeal Obamacare. Such kids have frequent visits to clinics and hospitals. It's therefore expensive for greedy insurance CEOs to allow such coverage. Let's wait what will happen with Republicans now vowed to punish American people by repealing Obamacare and want to raise tax for low and middle income, for the stupid reason to reduce federal deficit. Sarah as TEA Partier will have a fit.

[eaglewing20]

wow!

[jimt3000]

Given the strategic location of Alaska in the Pacific Theatre, and with the Republic of Korea being a trading partner with Alaska; Governor Palin is well-versed on North and South Korea.

http://wayback.archive-it.org/1200/20090726174408/http:/gov.state.ak.us/archive.php?id=1236&type=6

It was obvious from her preceding remarks that this really was just a slip of the tongue
The gaffe was part of a much longer segment in which she clearly and repeatedly referred to South Korea as an ally of the U.S

The media could even have done due diligence and checked Sarah Palin's previous statements on the Korea subject, which have always been consistent, and in fact even ahead of the curve.

Let's just go back to Sarah Palin's public comments about North Korean Missile Testing on April 6th 2009

April 6, 2009, Juneau, Alaska - Responding to the missile test by North Korea, Governor Sarah Palin today reaffirmed Alaska's commitment to protecting America from rogue nation missile attacks.

"I am deeply concerned with North Korea's development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead," Governor Palin said. "I can't emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska's strategic location and the system in place here have proven invaluable in defending the nation."

[Clouseau2]

The fact that she said North Korean allies instead of South Korean allies doesn't matter. The problem is that she is involving herself into foreign affairs when she doesn't know anything. She doesn't know about the history, cultures and protocol involving the region. Does she understand the relationship between North & South? The armistice? What happened during the Korean war? Does she understand that China has to support North Korea in certain ways to avoid losing face? Or that the USA can't say we will defend Taiwan if China attacked but we can hint at this? Bush blurted this out at one point which caused a diplomatic problem. We have the same kind of issues as China does in this regard. Saudi Arabia is one of our biggest allies and also one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world, but they are also our oil suppliers. One reason Iraq was such as disaster is that we are clueless about the very complex politics of the region; our Senators couldn't even tell Sunni and Shiite apart which is the most basic division in that region. So there is a danger in letting clueless people thrust themselves into international affairs, just like Sarah Palin is doing, and give us their totally uninformed opinions.

[eaglewing20]

Thank you for discussing the issues and moving on from the sound bites.

[jeanneyess]

Dear Clousseau2,

You are absolutely right !!! But what can we do about Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, with her absurd legalities regarding Mexican nationals, or those who just look like they might be? Of course, how much can you expect from a governor with just an Associates Degree, but her policies are interfering with our National Policy with Mexico, and I understand we are political friends and support one another. Her policies are totally unfriendly and would seem to be ajar with our State projectory for the region. It would seem to me that "shoot to kill" is a little harsh, when these refugees from internal crisis from drug cartels kill more and more Mexicans within 100 miles from the border and spreading fast, this makes them political refugees...remember, Lady Liberty...your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...send these, your tempest tost, to me...doesn't she get it??? Of what is she afraid???

Dang Republicans, and Bush made sure everyone knew he was a C student, what is it about these dang Republicans making a case for ignorance and illiteracy in government...and look who they picked as their leader... Boehner, who's making sure that the unemployed aren't going to have a Christmas, and may be living in the street for the hard winter ahead, and why...because he wants to make sure that the rich and wealthy get to keep their 70% tax cut...can you believe this, no charity for the poor, but he's going to take care of the rich...the man is heartless, cruel, and out for blood...Do you all Republicans want this man doing this...Really...are you all, too, cruel, selfish, heartless, and want your 70% tax cut before these unemployed people get their unemployment and agree that Mr. Boehner should use them as victims to get you even more money, even including your offshore tax evasion felony accounts with back taxes never paid and interest you all owe on them you aren't and haven't been paying, and do you really approve of Mr. Boehner's out for Blood tactics so you can be even richer and wealthier, let these people out in the cold with their families, so you all can have IMPORTED ROASTED CHESTNUTS every day from now until New Year's Eve??? Are you that greedy, do you bleed avarice???

Well, you stand with Mr. Boehner and you victimize Americans on their last leg, and you stand in front of God and tell him, you gave at the office, go ahead, say it, that's what you are saying when you let Boehner lead you around, and like Robbers, steal from the poor to stash in your felony tax evasion accounts, how can you do it, and let the children sleep in the snow??? Don't tell me you haven't seen them, I have and the masses grow...how can you steal from a poor kid to make him homeless, how CAN you do it???

Well, you go ahead and close your eyes when you make that deposit to that offshore account, in fact have your daddy do it for you so you don't have to have anything to do with it, sure, that's better, now its your daddy stealing food out of the homeless kids' mouths.

Pray hard. You're going to need it.

[michaelamsterdam]

If Palin's handlers wer ti ever permit her to make a live television, they would be sure to use a teleprompter...perhaps including some stage direction as well as merely telling her what she thinks..

Her opening statement would probably be...

"My fellow Americans, these are troubled times...take off glasses and look concerned"

[pmbalele]

Republicans are caught in neutral. They are now considering Sarah Palin as GOP chairperson to replace Michael Steele. What is the difference? Sarah is as air-head as Michael Steele. Are Republicans losing it? How can you put Sarah when you know no-body respects. As to Steele, she better applies for unemployment. Bad apple replace it with a bad apple! Now, after elections we have John Boehner and McConnell. John is a Big Cry Baby and McConnell is old white establishment. These are now fighting with TEA Partiers as who should develop Republican policies. In fact up to this moment Republicans do not have a policy. Well - let them elect Sarah as their GOP leader.

[eaglewing20]

Really??!??. So which 10 of the following did Barack visit? American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, or Wake Island. Can we not just admit he made a mistake? He said 57 when he meant to say 47. People, no matter how mush you worship them, will make mistakes.

[Retta in Las Vegas]

1st she did not even know there where two Korea's, North & South, NOW she not sure which one is our ally.
Give me a break, this woman is sooo....very undeucated, please God let her run as president, it would be a slam dunk for Obama!

[eaglewing20]

So, why is North Korea not our friend and why is the South our ally? Who are the presidents of each country? What was the source of the Korean War? Who does ally themselves with the North? Why are they currently in the news? You have 5 minutes to respond or I shall assume that you as well are uneducated. Get real people. Do you really think that any politician comes up with these items off the cuff? They all have staffs helping them have this information ready. How many people does Obama have in his cabinet feeding him data every 5 minutes? It is not a sign of intelligence. Someday, we may get past soundbite journalism, but I fear it will not be in my lifetime. The "dumb masses" will continue to be spoon fed their talking points and line up behind whoever carries the flag of the color they think they are aligned to.

[jimt3000]

It was obvious from her preceding remarks that this really was just a slip of the tongue

The gaffe was part of a much longer segment in which she clearly and repeatedly referred to South Korea as an ally of the U.S.

After correctly identifying the countries numerous times, Palin said "North Korean allies," was quickly corrected by Beck, and continued with her comment.

Most people are unaware that Obama ever said such things, mostly because they're simple slips of the tongue that don't matter - just like Palin's was.

Obama knows that Europe is a continent, just like Palin knows the difference between North and South Korea.

An honest mistake that is quickly corrected should just be ignored. The correction was made and everyone should move on.

This rarely seems to happen with Palin and certainly didn't last week.

Instead of just ignoring the misstatement, the Internet exploded with comments that Palin didn't know where the U.S. stood on the situation.

Stories like these are one of the main reasons the media is perceived to have a liberal bias!!

The media could even have done due diligence and checked Sarah Palin's previous statements on the Korea subject, which have always been consistent, and in fact even ahead of the curve.

April 6, 2009, Juneau, Alaska - Responding to the missile test by North Korea, Governor Sarah Palin today reaffirmed Alaska's commitment to protecting America from rogue nation missile attacks.

"I am deeply concerned with North Korea's development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead," Governor Palin said. "I can't emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska's strategic location and the system in place here have proven invaluable in defending the nation."

[Retta in Las Vegas]

1st she did not even know there where two Korea's, North & South, NOW she not sure which one is our ally.
Give me a break, this woman is sooo....very undeucated, please God let her run as president, it would be a slam dunk for Obama!

[eaglewing20]

Take away his teleprompter, then defend him. He can't even give a speech at an elementary school without it.

[san850]

Do you realize that every president has used teleprompters since their invention? And do you realize that it's much more effective and efficient than writing on your hand????

[eaglewing20]

Of course I do. Do you realize that there are a lot of people on here calling kettles black and throwing stones in glass houses? These people talk for a living. Without a crutch, they all screw up at one time or another, even the infallible one. People say stupid stuff...get off the soundbites, get off the badwagons. Start looking at the issues for yourself and get a little educated about how the rug is being pulled out from under each and every one of us. D, R, I...they are all the same.