Translation Issues with the EU-Korea Free Trade Pact

Discrepancies between Korean, English versions cause uproar

By Kim Tae-gyu, Korea Times

When the European Parliament approved the free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea midway through February, the pact looked set for smooth sailing.

Just ahead of the parliamentary reviews here, however, things abruptly changed because of discrepancies located in the Korean- and the English-language versions of the accord.

The original Korean-language text signed last October was found to have numerous translation errors of late. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) corrected them to present the ratification motion to the National Assembly last week.

Yet, domestic experts contend that there are additional mistakes, some of which they say might be intentional.

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