Paris Olympics: What happened in the opening ceremony that the IOC chief had to apologize to the President of South Korea?

A big mistake happened during the opening ceremony of the Olympics held in Paris, the capital of France on Friday. During the Parade of Nations in the ceremony, the South Korean team was addressed as North Korea. There is a lot of anger among the people of South Korea about this mistake in the Olympics, after which the Olympic Committee has formally apologized.

During the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, a six kilometer long parade started from the Austerlitz Bridge on the Seine River. When the South Korean team entered the parade on a grand boat, South Korea was called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in both French and English. Please note that this is the official name of North Korea.

South Korea expressed its displeasure over this incident and lodged its objection. After this, the Olympic Committee expressed regret over the incident and apologized and assured that such an incident will not happen in future.

IOC chief spoke to the President of South Korea

The International Olympic Committee said in a social media post that we made a mistake while introducing the South Korean team during the opening ceremony, for which we sincerely apologize.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach spoke to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yol over the phone and personally apologized to him. The South Korean President told Bach that his country’s people were very shocked and embarrassed by this incident.

Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams described the mistake as “clearly regrettable” and said that a mistake has been made. We can only apologize that we made a mistake.

At the same time, South Korea’s Sports Ministry has requested the Foreign Ministry to officially complain to the French government.