South Korean athletes were mistakenly billed as North Koreans at the Paris Olympics

In an unfortunate mishap during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, South Korean athletes were mistakenly announced as North Koreans. The mistake occurred as the South Korean team paraded down the Seine River, and was announced in both French and English as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name. Despite the correct labeling on the side of the South Korean boat, the announcers made the mistake, for which the Olympic committee has since apologized profusely.

Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), acknowledged the operational error, regretting and apologizing for the incident amid the complex process of the night. This is not the first instance of this confusion. At the 2012 London Olympics, the North Korean women's soccer team briefly left the pitch when the South Korean flag was shown on the screen before their match against Colombia. The team returned to play and won the match 2-0 after correcting the flags.

In response to the recent incident, Jang Mi Ran, the vice minister of South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, requested a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach. The ministry also asked South Korea's foreign ministry to file a strong government-level complaint with the French government. The Korean Peninsula has been divided into South Korea and North Korea since the end of World War II in 1945, with the Korean War fought over borders in the early 1950s. Despite the end of the war, the division between the two nations has persisted.