Palin supports ‘North Korean allies’ in gaffe

US conservative favourite Sarah Palin is choosing sides in the latest conflict pitting the two Koreas against one another, but a verbal slip-up saw her make an unexpected pick.

“Obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies,” she said on the radio show of fellow conservative icon Glenn Beck.

The host immediately corrected her and Palin repeated: “Yeah. And we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes.”

Although it was clear Palin had an unfortunate slip of the tongue, it is the type of error the former Republican vice-presidential candidate must scrupulously avoid to dispel doubts about her credibility in a potential run for the White House in 2012.

Palin, who left midway through her first term in office as governor of Alaska, was battered by the “lamestream media” for her awkward speech and apparent lack of knowledge on key foreign and national matters when she was John McCain’s running mate for his failed 2008 presidential bid.

Her appearance on The Glenn Bleck Programme came amid a busy schedule for Palin, now promoting a new book ripping President Barack Obama on healthcare reform and foreign policy.

The remainder of Palin’s remarks on Tuesday’s deadly artillery attack that marked the worst violence between North and South Korea since the Korean War stuck to traditional US policy talking points.

“This is stemming from, I think, a greater problem when we’re all sitting around asking ‘Oh no, what are we gonna do,’ and we’re not having a lot of faith that the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea’s gonna do,” she said.

“So this speaks to a bigger picture here that certainly scares me in terms of our national security policies.”

She also said the US should “remind North Korea, well, we’re not going to reward bad behaviour and we’re not going to walk away”.