Another botched foray into international affairs sees Sarah Palin mistakes North Korea as America's ally. A little 'refudiation' is required just days after Barbara Bush suggested it would be best for the beautiful Sarah to stay in Alaska.

Barbara Bush – W’s ‘mommy’ has never been hailed for her tact and wow did that tell-it-how-it-is trait ring true this week, particularly when it came to Sarah Palin and her latest unsolicited foray into foreign affairs.

It goes like this. When Larry King asked the Bush matriarch what she thought of Sarah Palin, she replied that she once sat next to her and thought she was beautiful… seemed to be very happy in Alaska , and it is to be hoped she stays there. Yeeeooow.

South Korea will endorse the oh-so-wise Mrs Bush, as Palin has now shown she doesn’t even know the difference between the ROK and the DPRK. That’s all very fine if you are Snookie from the TV reality farce that is Jersey Shore . It is not OK if you are a serious (word used advisedly) contender for President of the US – who, come to think of it, also just so happens to have a TV reality show.

But back to real reality. Palin phoned her Fox News colleague Glenn Beck during his radio show to offer her doubts about whether the Obama White House had the guts to take charge of the recent outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula .

She conceded America had to “stand with our North Korean allies”. Interesting. Obviously she knows there is a North and a South Korea , so that’s good. It may however prove a little more difficult for Caribou Barbie to ‘refudiate’ any analysis that she didn’t know which side the US was on in the Korean War. This is the woman who thought Africa was a country, and drove McCain advisers to distraction as they tried to teach her some basic history and geography. They failed.

Beck – when he is not crying, blubbering, pointing to charts revealing his alternative world of ‘facts’ or encouraging pensioners invest in gold coins sold by a company that happens to sponsor him – can be awfully helpful to the likes of Palin. He quickly interrupted to correct her North-South dyslexia. The strange thing is she didn’t seem to get the gravity of the mistake/slip – call it what you will, as it will be quickly blamed on a conspiracy involving what she calls the ‘lame-stream media’.

A conglomeration that obviously excludes Beck & Co. so is not necessarily a slur.

Anyway while Palin replied to her gracious host’s corrections with an “Er yes” and on she went, it is clearly not the White House and its commitment to its ally South Korea that is the worry.

Perhaps to take the heat off herself, Palin can continue her weekly exploitation of her own children with the strangely named Sarah Palin’s Alaska television reality presidential campaign. This week’s episode included various encouragements for Bristol to either club the hell out of a madly flapping freshly landed fish which needed to be quickly stunned to preserve the quality of its flesh; to never give up trying to shoot a clay pigeon – just reload; or, not to worry about her highly publicized and extremely unstable baby-producing pre-marital sexual liaison because, as Mumma Grizzly knows, there are “plenty more fish in the sea”. Presidential wisdom so inspiringly crafted by television script writers.

And while Palin goes about her deeply shallow political striptease, the country’s actual allies on the Korean peninsula wonder what to do about the particularly unstable and trigger happy Kim Jong-il. 

He truly is the Levi Johnston of politics at the moment.

What is he playing at?

Perhaps, as Palin shows off Alaska to her brood which she drags around the State on a luxury bus, Kim too is showing off to his heir Kim Jong-un.

If power is to pass from the frail father to the neophyte, then there’d better be some power to plop in the poison chalice.

Baby Kim has just been made a four star general – the nice thing about dynasties is never having to bother with the first three stars – but he needs some sort of kerfuffle to establish his military credentials. Nothing like a little surprise attack on Yeonpyeong island which Pyongyang has never conceded belonged to the South anyway.

It gets world attention straight away and angers patron China , but not in a way (so far) that has led to China openly chastising Kim and Son. After all China would rather put up with some antics from North Korea than see it collapse and produce a flood of refugees over the border and an economic disaster which China would be expected to pick up most of the tab for.

Or perhaps Pappa Kim is feeling left out and unloved now that he has no more official nuclear talks going on at the moment. He does have a habit of creating a little havoc and then trying to appear reasonable in suggesting everyone just calm down and get on with sorting out what he wants in exchange for non-proliferation co-operation.

While it wasn’t initially intended to find similarities between Palin and the Kims, they’ve just sort of crept in and become difficult to avoid.

Like Kim senior, the half-term Governor of Alaska has been very busy getting attention through book tours, telly shows and lobbing missiles into the Republican Party “blue bloods” as she calls them. They are trying to sideline her apparently as they work to avoid an internal war with Tea Partiers. Kim knows only too well how lonely it can be outside the nuclear club.

And then there’s the issue of inexperience and the audacity to believe it is somehow a leadership virtue.

On the one-hand there’s an unknown about to take over a nuclear nation, and on the other a failed vice-presidential candidate for a nuclear nation who couldn’t even stick out one term as governor in an albeit stunning but nevertheless extremely isolated state.

While we know she can see Russia from her house, Sarah Palin should not have been asked Katie Couric trick questions such as “what do you read?” She should have been asked which side Russia was on in the Cold War. It is now plausible Palin would have answered “ya gotta watch those Ruskies ‘cause they were against America ’s ally North Korea ”.

No wonder she keeps watch on them.

Seriously, America (and South Korea ) should hope Mamma Bush gets her wish and a certain person remains huntin’ shootin’ an’ fishin’ in her much loved state of Alaska . The ‘lamestream’ media will understandably be hoping Mamma Grizzly takes her own advice and rather than giving up, reloads.