President Biden on Friday referred to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as the president of South Korea, in the latest gaffe involving world leaders.
The 81-year-old Biden’s blunder came amid attacks over his close relationship with former President Donald Trump, his opponent in the 2024 presidential race.
“We will never forget your love letter to President Kim Jong Un of South Korea and your admiration for President Putin. What a great leader President Putin is,” the president said. He said this in his remarks at the campaign reception. Located in Portola Valley, California
Biden’s mistake comes just over a year after he invited South Korean President Yun Seok-Yeol to a lavish state dinner at the White House.
The two also spent time together at a summit at Camp David last August.
Biden is no stranger to gaffes involving the names of world leaders.
In fact, Friday’s blunder wasn’t even the first involving South Korea’s president.
Biden stumbled upon Yun’s name during a visit to South Korea in May 2022, calling him “President Moon” in remarks after touring a Samsung microchip facility.
Yoon’s predecessor was former President Moon Jae-in.
In the last year alone, the commander in chief has withheld the names of current and former leaders of Mexico, Egypt, France, Germany and Ukraine.
Last July, Biden referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “Vladimir” during a NATO summit in Lithuania, apparently confusing him with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader and adversary of the United States and Ukraine. It seems like I did.
In February, Biden confused Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a press conference and criticized former special counsel Robert Hur’s accusation that he had a “poor memory.” I protected myself from
“As you know, Mexican President Sisi initially did not want to open the gates to allow humanitarian supplies to come in.” [to Gaza],” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. “I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate.”
In the same week, the president told audiences on three separate occasions that he had discussed the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol with European leaders who were actually dead at the time.
He told Democratic Party donors at two different events in New York on February 7 that he spoke about the violence with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Mr. Kohl’s death predates this event by nearly 50 years, when he apparently meant to refer to himself as “former German chancellor.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Helmut Kohl said, ‘Joe, if you pick up the phone and pick up a newspaper tomorrow, you’ll see on the front page of the London Times that 1,000 people stormed Parliament and broke down the doors of the House of Commons. How would you feel if you found out?” Biden said at one fundraiser, using a nearly identical anecdote and changing it to “Germany’s Helmut Kohl.” other events.
Mr. Cole passed away in 2017.
A few days earlier, on Feb. 4, Biden stumbled on the same story in Las Vegas, with one difference being that he recalled former French President Francois Mitterrand offering a hypothesis.
Mr. Mitterrand died in 1996.
Biden clearly meant to say current French President Emmanuel Macron.
The shocking series of gaffes is one of a number he has made since taking office, raising concerns about his mental strength as he seeks a second term in the White House.
Biden, the oldest president in American history, will be 86 years old at the end of his second term if re-elected in November.
