When South Korea was misidentified as North Korea at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony

The Friday's opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics left the South Korean contingent rather embarrassed as they were mistakenly introduced as being from North Korea, a mix-up that has sparked diplomatic concerns.

As the South Korean athletes paraded along the Seine, the announcer erroneously referred to them as representing the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea"—the official name of North Korea—in both French and English. Moreover, when the actual North Korean delegation passed by, the announcer called them by the same name.

South Korea has expressed regret and demanded assurances from the Paris Olympics organizers asthe country's Vice Minister for Sports and Culture, Jang Mi-ran, who was present in Paris, requested an urgent meeting with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach to address the issue, according to a statement from the ministry.


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The statement conveyed South Korea’s regret over the error, emphasizing that the athletes of the Republic of Korea should not have been misidentified.

Furthermore, South Korea's National Olympic Committee has formally lodged a complaint with the Games' organizers, urging that such an error is not repeated in future events.

The International Olympic Committee has acknowledged the mistake and issued a "deep apology" via their Korean language handle on X.

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"We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the Korean athletes during the broadcast of the opening ceremony," the committee said.


South Korea's delegation for the Paris Olympics consists of 143 athletes competing across 21 events, while North Korea, making its return to the Games for the first time since Rio 2016, has sent a team of 16 athletes.

(With Reuters inputs)