Olympic chief calls South Korean president to apologize for South-North blunder

Team Korea takes part in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday in Paris. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach apologized Saturday to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on a phone call after South Korean athletes were introduced as North Korean during the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday.

Bach said that Friday’s incident was inexcusable and he is deeply and sincerely sorry, according to a press release from the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee on Saturday.

Yoon pointed out that South Korea has hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics and the World Cup and the mistake during the Opening Ceremony was deeply shocking to the South Korean people.

Yoon also emphasized how important it is that a similar mistake never occurs again.

Bach said that he understood Yoon’s concerns and will take all necessary steps to prevent the incident from recurring.

The phone call came after public address system announcers during the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday incorrectly introduce South Korean Athletes using the official name for North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in both French and English. South Korea is officially the Republic of Korea.

Following the gaffe, South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Second Vice Minister Jang Mi-ran requested a meeting with Bach.

The ministry also asked the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to file a strong government-level complaint with the French government.

The IOC also apologized on a Korean-language X account on Saturday morning: “We deeply apologize for the mistake that happened when introducing Team Korea during the opening ceremony broadcast.”

The IOC did not explain how the incident happened in that post.

Friday's gaffe pulled the IOC into one of the tensest geopolitical conflicts in the world. South and North Korea have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice agreement that has been regularly tested by intermittent flair ups over the past 70 years.

The incident was not the first time an Olympics has mislabeled one of the Koreas. At the 2012 London Olympics, the North Korean women's football team walked off the pitch in protest after the South Korean flag was incorrectly shown alongside the team details. London 2012 organizers apologized for that blunder, blaming human error.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN AND JIM BULLEY [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]