South Korea protested Saturday after a gaffe at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in which its athletes were mistakenly introduced as North Koreans, prompting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to apologize. As the South Korean delegation arrived by boat on the Seine River as the 48th participating nation, announcers introduced it as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in French and then “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in English, both using the official name of North Korea, with which Seoul is still at war. The South Korean Sports Ministry regrets the announcement made at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, during which the South Korean delegation was introduced as the North Korean team “, he said in a statement. Jang Mi-ran, vice sports minister and 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion, has requested a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to discuss the case. South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had contacted the French embassy in Seoul, which expressed regret for what it called ” incomprehensible error “The Korean Sports and Olympic Committee (KSOC) said on Saturday that it had received a message from the IOC indicating that its president, Thomas Bach, wished to apologize directly by telephone to the South Korean president.
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