South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Saturday that it has requested a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, after the mistake made during the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, in which the country was presented as North Korea.
In a statement, the ministry says that the Deputy Minister of Sports, the former weightlifter and medalist Jang Mi Ranwho attended the ceremony in Paris, has asked the IOC to arrange a meeting with Bach to discuss the incident.
The text also says that a rapid response has been demanded from the IOC and the Paris 2024 organizing committee, which are asked not to repeat similar incidents, and that the South Korean Foreign Ministry has been asked to lodge a complaint with the French government.
When it was time to introduce the occupants of the boat that sailed on the Seine carrying the South Korean delegation at the inauguration ceremony, the Asian country’s team was announced in French and English as “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea“, the official designation of North Korea and not of South Korea, whose name is “Republic of Korea“.
The subtitles for the broadcast, which was shown on television and on giant screens along the Seine, correctly displayed “Republic of Korea” in English. North Korea, which was introduced later, was correctly identified both on the loudspeakers and on the lettering. So far the IOC has only issued an apology on its official X account in Korean..
This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred when these two countries, which are technically still at war, have been competing for the Olympic Games since the conflict between them between 1950 and 1953 ended with a ceasefire instead of a peace treaty.
At London 2012, the North Korean women’s football team walked off the pitch in protest after the team was mistakenly presented on the stadium’s video scoreboard with the South Korean flag. EFE
Paris 2024 Olympic GamesYONHAPAgencia EFE
2024-07-27 10:15:17
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