The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which oversees the ongoing 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, apologized to South Korea this weekend for mistakenly referring to the South Korean delegation as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK) at the opening ceremony.
DPRK is the official name of the communist North Korea, with which South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea) has been at war for 74 years. South Korean President Yun Seok-yeo said he was “surprised and disappointed” that his country, with its rich Olympic history having hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics, had been conflated with its biggest geopolitical foe.
The mistake, which the IOC described as a “human error,” occurred during the athletes’ parade at Friday’s opening ceremony, a highlight of the Paris Games’ unprecedented move to have athletes enter the city on a boat on the Seine rather than parade through a stadium. When the boat carrying the South Korean athletes arrived, Olympic organizers introduced them as DPRK in both French and English. The much smaller North Korean contingent was also introduced as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
The IOC issued a statement on its website on Saturday apologizing for the mistake in its call to the South Korean delegation but did not say which team the South Korean delegation was mistakenly identified as. The statement said IOC President Thomas Bach had called Yoon personally to apologize.
“During the call, the IOC President offered his sincere apologies for the incorrect introduction of the Korean Olympic Committee (KSOC) team during last night’s audio broadcast of the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” the IOC said. Said“The issue has been confirmed to be a human error and the IOC deeply apologizes.”
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency report The conversation between Bach and Yoon lasted about 10 minutes, and Yoon harshly criticized the mistake and demanded a public apology in addition to a private call, according to the presidential office.
“As citizens of the country that has hosted the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, Korean people are extremely surprised and disappointed by this incident,” Yoon was quoted as saying.
“I hope that they will apologize through the media and social media for this incident and prevent a similar incident from happening again,” Yoon continued. “I hope that the remaining Olympic Games will go ahead successfully and become a true celebration for people all over the world.”
Chairman of the Korea Sports and Olympic Committee (KSOC) Lee Ki-heung said, I got it. South Korea’s Olympic Committee warned Saturday that this was not the first time the IOC had offended South Korean sentiment.
“This absurd blunder occurred due to lack of attention by our operational leaders. The South Korean flag has been hoisted upside down before, but we never thought it would be officially mistaken for the North Korean flag,” Lee said.
Korean sports fans are different from other dissatisfaction South Korea has been protesting against the IOC in the aftermath of the opening ceremony disaster, including when the official Olympics Instagram account used a photo of the Korean team standing on the Seine River, blurring out the South Korean flag.
Olympic organizers have once again infuriated South Koreans by incorrectly spelling gold medal-winning fencer Wu Sang-ku’s name as “Oh Sang-ku” on their official Instagram page. The mistake has since been corrected.
As of Monday afternoon Paris time, the Korean delegation Tied up With seven medals so far, South Korea is ranked sixth in the medal standings at the 2024 Summer Olympics. South Korean athletes have won four gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal in archery, fencing and shooting.
The outrage in South Korea was largely overshadowed by growing global disgust at Olympic organizers for featuring sexual content, drag queens and imagery that Christians interpreted as mocking Friday’s Last Supper. The IOC apologized again after the opening ceremony to anyone offended, insisting that “The Last Supper” depicted a pagan festival celebrating Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, and was not a Christian image.
“My desire is not to be subversive, not to ridicule or shock,” artistic director Thomas Joly insisted. “Above all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion. Never a message of division.”
There have also been multiple “sabotage” attacks on Paris’ high-speed rail infrastructure, putting at risk the travel of thousands of tourists flocking to the French capital for the Olympics, and a “technical anomaly” caused a major power outage across the city on Saturday night, with only the iconic Christian monument, the Sacré-Coeur basilica in Montmartre, surviving the flames.
