South Korea is seeking a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach after its athletes were wrongly introduced as North Korean during the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics.
The IOC was forced to issue a “deep apology” for the incident which saw the South Korean delegation announced as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the full official name of North Korea, as their boat passed down the Seine.
The formal name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea.
The IOC issued an apology on its Korean-language X account, saying: “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.”
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IOC spokesperson Mark Adams on Saturday called the error “clearly deeply regrettable” and “an operational mistake” made in “an evening of so many moving parts.”
South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) “expressed its regret” with vice minister Jang Mi Ran requesting a meeting with Bach promptly and asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “convey a strong protest” to their French counterparts at government level.
The Korean Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Korea Sports Federation also contacted the Paris organizing committee in hopes of preventing “the misrepresentation of the Korean athletes” and said they would send an official letter of protest.
South Korea and North Korea have been established as separate entities since 1948 and have been in conflict after the Korean War of the early 1950s.
The 2024 Games is the first time North Korea has sent a delegation of athletes since 2016, with 16 athletes. South Korea has 143 athletes.
This is not the first occurrence of an incident of this type. In 2012, organizers in London blamed “human error” after a flag of South Korea was displayed alongside North Korea’s women’s team ahead of a game in the soccer tournament.
(Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
