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South Korean team flag bearers Kim So-yeon and Woo Sang-hyuk wave the national flag along the Seine River during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024.
Paris
CNN
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Olympic organisers have “deeply apologised” to South Korea for a “human error” during the opening ceremony in which 143 South Korean athletes were mistakenly introduced as being from North Korea.
The incident occurred on Friday as the South Korean players made their debut aboard a boat on the Seine River, with French and English announcers incorrectly describing the players as being from the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
That is the official name of North Korea. The official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea.
The error is a politically sensitive issue for North and South Korea, which are still technically at war. The Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953 and no peace treaty has yet been signed.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach spoke by phone with South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl on Sunday, according to a statement.
“During the telephone conversation, the IOC President offered his sincere apologies for the incorrect introduction of the Republic of Korea Olympic Committee’s delegation in the audio broadcast of the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” the statement said.
“The issue has been confirmed to be a human error and the IOC deeply apologizes,” it added.
The call came after the Olympic organising committee apologized on X’s official Korean account shortly after the gaffe.
At a press conference on Saturday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams called the incident “obviously very unfortunate” and said the IOC “apologises”.[d] Sincerely,” Reuters reported.
South Korea’s Ministry of Sports expressed “regret” over the introduction of the Korean athletes during the opening broadcast.
South Korea’s 143 athletes will compete in 21 sports. North Korea withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns and sent 16 athletes to Paris in 2021. The country then unilaterally skipped the Olympics in Japan and has been barred from taking part in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Tensions have been rising on the Korean peninsula in recent weeks over thousands of garbage-filled balloons sent by North Korea to South Korea, some of which ended up reaching the presidential palace grounds in Seoul.
North Korea has previously said it sent balloons to the South in response to a civilian campaign in South Korea to send balloons filled with anti-North Korean propaganda in the opposite direction.
Olympic organisers have “deeply apologised” to South Korea for a “human error” during the opening ceremony in which 143 South Korean athletes were mistakenly introduced as being from North Korea.
