At the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris, all participating delegations were introduced while they were sailing along the Seine in boats. In one case, the IOC made an unpleasant mistake.
The name of their country was correctly displayed on the flag attached to the boat from which the South Korean athletes cheered the spectators in Paris. It was also correctly displayed on the screens for everyone watching the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games on television around the world. Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made an unpleasant mistake when the name of the country was announced once in French and once in English. Because it was not the Republic of Korea – but the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. That is the official name of North Korea.
There have been political tensions between the neighboring Korean states for decades. North Korea isolates its inhabitants from the western-influenced South and is ruled by the totalitarian dictator Kim Jong Un. For a number of reasons, it is not a state that modern, democratic South Korea would want to be confused with. The South Korean Minister for Sports stated that he wanted to file a “clear complaint in France, at government level.”
Politician from South Korea calls for meeting
His ministry felt “regret regarding the announcement (…) in which the South Korean delegation was presented as the North Korean team”. The country’s deputy sports minister, Jang Mi-ran (himself an Olympic weightlifting champion in 2008), has called for a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach. The IOC has since apologized to the South Korean athletes on its Korean-language Twitter/X account: “We deeply apologize for the mistake we made in introducing the Korean athletes during the broadcast of the opening ceremony,” it said.
South Korea will be taking part in the games in Paris with 143 athletes. North Korea will be taking part with 16 participants – it is the first time since Rio 2016 that the country is taking part in the Olympic Games.
Source: Stern
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