At the Opening Ceremony, North Korea Displays the Five-Pointed Red Star, Australia Shows the Five-Star Red Flag... Korea's Untimely 'Suffering' [Paris Olympics]

Correctly displayed English names but showed the Five-starred Red Flag
Also mistakenly included the Russian flag for France during Pyeongchang

At the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued an official apology after mistakenly introducing South Korea as North Korea. Meanwhile, an Australian broadcaster sparked controversy by displaying the Chinese flag instead of the South Korean flag in the Olympic overall rankings. On the 29th, several online communities posted a message titled "Australian news screen shows South Korean flag as Chinese flag." The poster shared a captured image of the Olympic Day 1 overall rankings broadcast screen from Australia's Nine News.

At the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued an official apology after mistakenly introducing South Korea as North Korea. Meanwhile, an Australian broadcaster sparked controversy by placing the Chinese flag instead of the South Korean flag in the Olympic overall rankings.
[Photo source=Online community 'FM Korea']

The screen showed flags next to each country's name. Australia ranked first on Day 1 with 3 gold medals and 2 silver medals, followed by South Korea in 5th place with 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal each. South Korea's English name was displayed as "KOREA REPUBLIC," but the problem was with the flag. Instead of the Taegukgi, the Chinese Five-star Red Flag was shown. The problematic screen was reported in the news on the 28th (local time). However, on the broadcaster's official website, the overall rankings section correctly displayed South Korea and the Taegukgi.

Netizens reacted with comments such as, "The flags are not similar at all, how can they make such a mistake?", "South Korea has confused Australia with Austria at international events before, but how can Korea and China be confused?", and "The Chinese flag was right above it, so how did no one notice the mistake?"

Repeated Mistakes at the Paris Olympics, Revenge for PyeongChang Olympics 6 Years Ago?

Mislabeling country names or flags occasionally occurs in Olympic broadcasts or related reports. During the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, a domestic broadcaster made a similar mistake to the Australian broadcaster. At that time, MBC displayed the Russian flag next to the French team’s name during the opening ceremony broadcast. Regarding this, a French resident in Korea posted on YouTube, "I thought mistakes could happen because we are human, but the French people were very upset," adding, "Imagine if the Olympics were held in France and during the Korean team’s entrance, they showed the Chinese or another country’s flag. Koreans would be angry too."

In Olympic broadcasts or related reports, there are often mistakes in displaying country names or flags. During the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, a domestic broadcasting station made a similar error to an Australian broadcaster. At that time, MBC displayed the Russian flag next to the name of the French team during the opening ceremony broadcast.
[Photo by Online Community 'FM Korea']

Some netizens speculated in online communities that the Paris Olympic Committee’s mistake of introducing South Korea as North Korea at the opening ceremony, followed by the repeated error of misspelling fencer Oh Sang-wook’s name as Oh Sang-gu, might be intentional errors by the French. They pointed out that French media gave significant coverage to MBC’s mistake of mislabeling the French flag, and that the unpleasant memories from that time are now manifesting as deliberate mistakes against South Korea.

In particular, on the 27th, a French journalist reported that the IOC president had called South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to apologize for the misidentification of South Korea as North Korea at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The journalist also posted on their SNS a reminder of the incident during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics when the Russian flag was mistakenly shown as the French flag.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.