Washington, July 19 (Reuters): South Korea has been pushing the CIA to change the way it spells President Roh Moo-hyun’s last name, but the CIA is sticking to its guns, the embassy said on Sunday.

In an online directory and in its World Fact Book, a standard reference, the CIA spells it “No,” rather than “Roh,” the Korean leader’s preference. The embassy has sent the CIA three formal requests, one last year and two this year, as part of efforts to get the entire US government to change its spelling, said Jeongsun Suh, the officer in charge of press and culture.

“Up to now, we didn’t receive a response,” he said. The state department also uses the transliteration on its website.

Suh said the chief rub was the World Fact Book, even though it brackets in the spelling preferred by the President.

The CIA standardises spelling of foreign names for its online directory of foreign leaders, updated weekly, as well as for an in-house operation that translates and transcribes overseas broadcasts. The directory of chiefs of state and cabinet members of foreign governments seems to suggest that President Roh should get his wish. It says the spellings it uses follow transliterations systems “generally agreed upon by US government agencies.