Olympics apologize for portraying South Korean athletes as North Koreans

PARIS — Olympic organizers said they offered their “deepest apologies” for referring to South Korean athletes as North Koreans at the opening ceremony in Paris.

As South Korean athletes waved their country’s flag on a boat floating on the Seine River Friday night, they were announced in French and English as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. South Korea is the Republic of Korea.

“We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred during the introduction of the Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony,” the International Olympic Committee said in a message posted on X in Korean.

Jang Mi Ran, South Korea’s second vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, has requested a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach over the incident, the ministry said in a statement Saturday. He also asked the South Korean foreign ministry to lodge “a firm government-level complaint” with the French government.

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The statement said the South Korean Olympic committee had separately asked Paris Games organizers to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams called the mistake “clearly deeply regrettable” on Saturday.

“An operational error was made. We can only apologize, on a night when so much is moving, for this error,” Adams said in response to a question from a South Korean journalist at a news conference.

The Korean Peninsula has been divided into two parts: South Korea and North Korea since the end of World War II in 1945.

The blue sign on the boat carrying the South Korean athletes did indeed indicate the correct name.

Another problem occurred during the opening ceremony: the Olympic flag depicting the five rings was upside down when it was raised towards the end of the ceremony.

“It’s unfortunate,” Adams said. “In a four-hour show, sometimes things happen. We can all move on, it’s not the end (of the world).”

After the flag was raised, the IOC television channel did not broadcast any close-ups. Typically, Olympic flagpoles are equipped with a mechanism that blows on the flag to tighten it. On Friday, the Olympic rings flag hung limply next to the flagpole.

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