SINGAPORE: The North Korean delegation which was in Singapore earlier this week for the historic meeting between United States president Donald Trump and North Korean…
SINGAPORE: The North Korean delegation which was in Singapore earlier this week for the historic meeting between United States president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was suspicious at first of 25-year-old Gim Joo Hyung when they first heard him speak Korean.
Insp (NS) Gim, who was born in South Korea but moved to Singapore as a child, served National Service with the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Police Coast Guard and was called back as part of his reservist duties to help with translation work during the Trump-Kim Summit .
His job was to be the main translator for the SPF and to provide understanding of security measures for both the Singapore and North Korean sides. He also provided translation as and when either sides needed it.
APPREHENSIVE AT FIRST
When the SPF first broached the idea of doing translation work, Gim’s immediate reaction was doubt and worry because he had no prior translation experience.
He eventually accepted the job after encouragement from his South Korean parents who told him that “for their child to contribute even a little bit in this summit is a huge thing for them”.
His work included classified-level translation work to more mundane duties such as helping the visiting delegation with directions or communicating discomforts during their hotel stay.
“You can imagine that security would be the most important thing when foreign delegates come, right? So that would require a clear passage of communication between the Singaporean police and the North Korean security team. The biggest challenge is the language barrier,” he said.
“I was thinking about the challenges I might face because growing up in Singapore, I’m not that great in Korean and the North Koreans speak with a different accent. They speak a bit faster. They have a different range of vocabulary,” he added.
Gim said that the vocabulary they used is more military-like. For example, a friend would be a “bro” to a South Korean, but a “comrade” to a North Korean. “I didn’t know how to address them before the Summit. I didn’t know their ranking system before that. So that was more of an impromptu thing, and I [learnt] all the hierarchy on the job,” he said.
There was also the issue that he was in police uniform, has a Korean name and could speak Korean.
“The most sensitive issue would be that me, as a South Korean, I’m talking to a North Korean. If they know that I’m a South Korean, they might actually not be favourable of talking to me.
