On Friday, US President Joe Biden referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as the president of South Korea.
It came as the 81-year-old Biden was attacking his opponent in the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump, over his close relationship with the North’s leader:
“We’ll never forget his love letters for the South Korean President Kim Jong Un,” the president said during remarks at a campaign reception in Portola Valley, Calif.
Biden’s mistake came just over a year after he hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House for a lavish state dinner. They also met together last August during the Camp David summit.
Friday’s gaffe wasn’t even the first involving the South Korean president. Biden previously tripped over Yoon’s name in May 2022 during a trip to South Korea, referring to him as “President Moon” in his remarks after visiting a Samsung microchip factory, as Yoon’s predecessor is former President Moon Jae-in.
In the past year alone, Biden has also mixed up the names of the current and former leaders of Mexico, Egypt, France, Germany and Ukraine. Last July, Biden referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “Vladimir” during a NATO summit in Lithuania, apparently confusing him with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
On 2 March, the president twice confused Gaza with Ukraine when he announced that the US would provide much-needed airdrop aid to the Palestinians
Joe Biden is the oldest US president in American history.
