Another Olympics gaffe forces public apology over North-South Korea confusion

In a moment that left many viewers baffled, some very angry, and officials scrambling, organisers of the Olympic Games were forced into issuing a “deep apology” after mistakenly introducing South Korea’s athletes as North Korea during the opening ceremony in Paris.

IOC calls South Korea by wrong name

The gaffe occurred as the South Korean team joined all the other participating nations going down the River Seine, their flags waving proudly. But the announcers, first in French and then in English, managed to deflate the moment by introducing them as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the official name for North Korea. In French this was “Republique populaire democratique de Coree.”

To add to the confusion, the same name was then correctly used when North Korea’s much smaller delegation of 16 athletes made their appearance shortly after.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was quick to respond, issuing an apology on its official Korean-language X account.

“We would like to offer a deep apology over the mistake that occurred in the introduction of the South Korean delegation during the opening ceremony,” the statement read in Korean. The error prompted South Korea’s second vice sports minister, Jang Mi-ran, herself a 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion, to demand a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach.

South-North Korea mix-ups

This is not the first time something like this has happened. At the London 2012 Games organisers were also apologising after a flag mix-up when South Korea’s flag appeared alongside North Korea’s women’s soccer team on stadium screens as players warmed up before their opening match.

South Korea, officially known as the Republic of Korea, has a robust presence at this year’s games, with 143 athletes competing across 21 sports. In contrast, North Korea is participating for the first time since the 2016 Rio Games, with a modest team of 16 athletes. The two Koreas, divided since the end of World War Two, have a very sensitive relationship, and these mistakes don’t help.