Singapore part of Malaysia? US red-faced after ‘reunification’ blunder in Pompeo comments
State Department published remarks by the top diplomat ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, which said the city state was part of its neighbour
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As the US prepared for a summit some hoped may bring peace to the long-divided Korean peninsula, Washington accidentally hinted at another unlikely reunion by listing Singapore as part of Malaysia.
The wealthy financial hub and its larger neighbour were part of the same country for two years in the 1960s until Singapore was expelled over ethnic divisions with Malaysia, and they have been separate nations ever since.
The slip-up was quickly corrected after it started to go viral but not before triggering sniggers from netizens, with one Facebook user lamenting: “To the average American, the world is America.”
People from both countries, whose histories have been marked by constant bickering and diplomatic flare-ups, were put out by the suggestion they may still be one and the same nation.
One commentator posted that the remark was “definitely a bigger let down for Singapore and Singaporeans”, while a Malaysian angrily posted on Facebook that there should be no mix-up as Malaysia was “more famous” than the city state.
Watch: Trump and Kim sign letter following talks in Singapore
Pompeo’s comments came ahead of Tuesday’s meeting in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which focused on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
North and South Korea were divided by the US and Soviet Union in the closing days of the second world war.
Trump and Kim have hailed their summit as a breakthrough in relations between cold war foes, but an agreement they produced was short on details about the key issue of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.
