Paris 2024: IOC apologizes for South Korea gaffe

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) apologized on Saturday for introducing South Korea's athletes as being from North Korea during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Paris Olympics.

The gaffe happened as the South Korean delegation sailed down the Seine River in the French capital on Friday evening.

The team was introduced as being from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the full name for North Korea. South Korea, meanwhile, is formally known as the Republic of Korea.

The sign on the boat carrying the South Korean athletes did show the correct name.

Counting the Winter Olympics, France is hosting its seventh Olympic Games until August 11.

How did the IOC respond?

"We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the South Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony," the IOC said in a post in Korean on X, formerly Twitter.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said the error was "clearly deeply regrettable."

"An operational mistake was made. We can only apologize, in an evening of so many moving parts, that this mistake was made," Adams said in response to a question from a South Korean journalist during a news conference.

Seoul reacted angrily to the mistake, with President Yoon Suk Yeol telling ICO chief Thomas Bach that they were "bewildered" by the mix-up.

Yoon requested that the error not be made again, while Bach told Yoon that it was an "inexcusable incident."

South Korea's Sports Ministry earlier called the gaffe an "incomprehensible mistake."

Seoul also said it would file "a strong government-level complaint" with the French government.

Longtime foes, tensions rising

North and South Korea are technically still at war as no peace deal from the 1950-1953 war was ever reached, although open hostilities have ceased.

Relations between the two neighbors are at one of their lowest points in years over the North's military and nuclear ambitions.

The two countries are sensitive over their national identities, especially North Korea, which openly shows irritation when it is not referred to by its official name.

North Korea was criticized for boosting ties with Russia when both countries agreed last month to provide immediate military assistance if either faces armed aggression.

South Korea's delegation includes 143 athletes competing in 21 events. North Korea, which is returning to the Games for the first time since Rio 2016, has sent 16 athletes.

London Olympics showed wrong Korean flag

Friday's gaffe was the second incident at an Olympics to cause embarrassment on the Korean Peninsula.

During the 2012 Olympics in London, a South Korean flag was shown on a jumbo screen, just as a North Korean player was introduced before a women's soccer match.

The match was delayed for nearly an hour when the North Korean team refused to go on the pitch.

In another glitch toward the end of Friday's opening ceremony in Paris, the Olympic five-ring flag was displayed upside down.

mm/wd (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)