SIR Keir Starmer stumbled into a major gaffe when he mistook an interpreter for the South Korea leader.
The Prime Minister shook hands with a translator rather than his counterpart Lee Jae-myung while at the G7 summit.
There was then confusion over where the two leaders should stand before they posed for a photograph at the get-together in Canada.
The awkward incident occurred just a day after Sir Keir had to intervene when Donald Trump dropped the UK-US trade deal documents on the ground.
The South Korea leader has only just won power after being elected two weeks ago.
Starmer said the UK and Korea “have a good strong relationship”.
He said he wanted to “strengthen it even further” in areas including “the enhancement of our free trade agreement” and defence and security.
Lee agreed that “we should make progress in modernising our free trade agreement.”
The PM also said that no one should be worried about the US President’s health after he dropped the papers.
Trump also mistakenly said that the US had signed a trade deal with the European Union rather than the UK.
Sir Keir commented: “No. I mean, look, there were limited options with the documents and picking it up, because one – as you probably know, there were quite strict rules about who can approach the president.
“I mean honestly, I think if anyone besides me had stepped forward… I was very aware that, in such a situation, it would not have been appropriate for anyone else to step forward – not that any of you hastened to!”
“There’s a very tightly guarded security zone around the president, as you would expect.
“But no, he was in good form yesterday, and I mean we had – I don’t know how many sessions yesterday together as the G7 and then into the evening session as well.”
