SINGAPORE:\u00a0The North Korean delegation which was in Singapore earlier this week for the historic meeting between United States president Donald Trump and North Korean\u2026<\/b>
\nSINGAPORE:\u00a0The 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\u2019s (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 \u00ab\u00a0for their child to contribute even a little bit in this summit is a huge thing for them\u00a0\u00bb.
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.
\u201cYou 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,\u201d he said.
\u201cI was thinking about the challenges I might face because growing up in Singapore, I\u2019m 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,\u201d he added.
Gim said that the vocabulary they used is more military-like. For example, a friend would be a \u201cbro\u201d to a South Korean, but a \u201ccomrade\u201d to a North Korean. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to address them before the Summit. I didn\u2019t know their ranking system before that. So that was more of an impromptu thing, and I [learnt] all the hierarchy on the job,\u201d he said.
There was also the issue that he was in police uniform, has a Korean name and could speak Korean.
\u201cThe most sensitive issue would be that me, as a South Korean, I\u2019m talking to a North Korean. If they know that I\u2019m a South Korean, they might actually not be favourable of talking to me. They may not be responsive to what I\u2019m saying,\u201d he said.
However, when Gim met the North Koreans, he said that they were \u201cvery, very, surprised\u201d that he could speak Korean. He interacted with both senior and junior security guards from the planning phase to the execution phase.
\u201cThe higher-ups, they said \u2018Hey you can speak Korean really well. I said, \u2018Yes I can. I have Korean blood in me\u2019. I didn\u2019t say I\u2019m [South] Korean per se and they were cool about it,\u201d he said.
\u201cThe normal guys in the security team\u2026 Let\u2019s say, someone ask them a question, they will just rather not speak because they aren\u2019t in a position where they can make decisions. But they came to me asking little, little stuff,\u201d he added, and that was when Gim knew he had their trust.
STERN, AVOIDED EYE CONTACT
NSman 3WO (NS) Terrence Lee had a similar experience when he was tasked to make sure that the summit\u2019s meeting venue Capella Hotel was free of any Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive (CBRE) threats.
While Lee has performed similar preventative sweeps in the past, he said that this round\u2019s sweep was challenging because it involved two foreign counterparts. The sweep, which started two days before the meeting, was done in the presence of representatives from the US and North Korea.
With the US, Lee said that it was easier because both teams spoke English. Members from both teams were friendly with each other and even shared techniques for explosive ordnance disposal as they conducted the checks.
As for the North Koreans, Lee said they struggled to communicate because there wasn\u2019t a common language. They resorted to using hand signals to communicate because Lee\u2019s team was not allocated a translator.
For example, both the US and DPRK had requested to sweep certain rooms themselves without Lee\u2019s team. For some areas used by Chairman Kim, his guards signalled with hand signs to indicate that they will do the sweep themselves, said Lee.
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t engage. I think they can\u2019t converse in English so we didn\u2019t have any conversation with them,\u201d Lee said.
There were also not many opportunities to make friends because of rotating shifts between both teams. \u201cThey were doing their own rotations within themselves, basically we do not have time to actually chat with each other,\u201d he said.
Even if they had time to chat, like when waiting to pass through Singapore\u2019s customs as a whole delegation, they would most likely not do so.
When Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer Insp Reshma Nair and her colleagues had hundreds of passports from both sides to process, she found that the North Koreans to be less chatty than the Americans.
\u201cIt was really amazing to see because they\u2019re all very professional and they avoid eye contact with you until the Chairman has passed,\u201d she said.
INVITED THOSE WHO HELPED TO PYONGYANG FOR COLD NOODLE S
Gim said that the relationship between him and the North Korean officers slowly thawed and became less formal as they saw each other more.
\u00ab\u00a0In the morning, they will greet me…. When I talk to them first, they will be like, ‘Have you had lunch?’,\u00a0\u00bb Gim said.
Despite the short time spent interacting during the Summit, their familiarity grew to a point where the North Koreans extended an invitation to Gim and the rest of the SPF to visit Pyongyang.
\u00ab\u00a0When they were leaving, they said, ‘Next time, let\u2019s meet in Pyongyang and let\u2019s have Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold noodles)’. I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, I said let\u2019s do that next time,\u201d Gim said.
The experience challenged his opinion of North Koreans, which was shaped by media depictions that they are rough, military-trained and inflexible people.
\u201cI know that they appreciated my efforts and the SPF when they were leaving, they offered to eat Pyongyang noodles together in their home country. When they thanked everyone in the SPF, everybody said this, ‘I hope to meet you soon in Pyongyang’. I mean, that just shows how much they are appreciative and grateful they are. That really showed me that these people are nice,\u00a0\u00bb said Gim.
This, Gim said, was the most memorable moment for him throughout his seven-day reservist recall.
\u00ab\u00a0I helped the place I was born, the place I grew up, and I helped my mother country Korea,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n