The North Korean women’s soccer team walked off the field before their opening match with Colombia after a mix-up that angered the delegation, AFP reports.
The team refused to return to the field for more than an hour after the South Korean flag was mistakenly associated with the North Korean players. The match was scheduled to start at 7:45 pm but finally kicked off at 8:50 pm. North Korea won 2-0 with a goal in each half despite starting badly. North Korean coach Sin Ui-Gun told AFP: “Winning the game cannot compensate this. It is a different matter. We hope there is no repeat in the next matches”. Sin said that they were offended at being introduced “as if coming from South Korea”.
Olympic organisers and FIFA apologised for the error. The London organizing committee released a statement stating: “Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologize to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again”.
