Seoul To Combat Translation Errors

The foreign ministry plans to set up a specialized department dedicated to translating English treaties signed with foreign governments into Korean to prevent typos and translation mistakes. It was proposed as the government started looking for ways to remove errors in agreements after translation mistakes, which were found belatedly, have dealt a blow to the foreign ministry.

Under the current scheme, those who participated in negotiations for the agreements are required to translate the documents into English after completing deals.

“As negotiations usually take months or years before reaching a conclusion, those who are part of the negotiations are often burned out after completing them,” an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) told The Korea Times, asking not to be named. “So they tend to pay little attention to translations, leading to mistakes.”

The foreign ministry is therefore seeking the establishment of a separate translation office. Under the proposed plan, translators will not be required to take part in negotiations. Those who participated in negotiations will only be responsible for reaching agreements and will not be asked to translate the agreements signed with foreign governments.