North Korea flag blunder: ‘The people are angry’ over Hampden Olympic gaffe

THE North Korean representative at the International Olympic Committee has said “the people are angry” over the last night’s Olympic flag mix-up at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

• Video screen showed flag of South Korea

• North Korean team walked off the pitch before match in protest

• Reports that video package was sent centrally from London

• David Cameron: ‘It was an honest mistake’

“Of course the people are angry,” Ung Chang told Reuters Television, speaking in London.

“If your athlete got a gold medal and put the flag probably of some other country, what happens?”

• How well do you know your national flags? Take our challengeThe North Korean women’s football team staged a protest ahead of their opening match with Columbia after the South Korean flag was wrongly shown on a big screen before kick-off.

As a consequence, the players walked off the pitch and refused to start yesterday’s match at Hampden Park in Scotland at the scheduled 7.45pm start time.

They were persuaded to return to the field about an hour later when the sides were announced again with each player’s face displayed next to the North Korean flag.

David Cameron said every effort will be made to ensure mistakes such as last night’s Olympic flag mix-up never happen again. The Prime Minister said the error was “an honest mistake” for which an apology has been issued.

“Every effort will be taken to make sure this won’t happen again,” Mr Cameron said.

“It was unfortunate and should not have happened,” Mr Cameron said.

But North Korean coach Gun Sin Ui said he planned to take the matter up with LOCOG as well as Fifa, world football’s governing body.

Ui said: “Our players were announced with their photos and names alongside the South Korean national flag. The national flag difference is a big problem.

“Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved properly. Unfortunately it took some time later for the broadcast to be done again properly and we made the decision to go on with the match.”

Asked whether he believed the wrong flag had deliberately been used, Ui said: “That was the question I was going to ask LOCOG and FIFA.

“We were angry because our players were shown as if they were from South Korea which affects us very greatly.”

Paul Deighton, chief executive of LOCOG, said last night’s flag mix-up was down to “simple human error” and he believed Locog’s apologies had been accepted by the North Koreans.

“We made a mistake, it is as simple as that,” he said. “It wasn’t a real flag, it was a flag on a video graphic. We have taken steps to make sure that absolutely can’t happen again.

“We spent a lot of time with them last night explaining what had happened and why it happened and we have written a letter to them.

“I think they were always going to come out again. It was a shame we couldn’t get them out earlier, because clearly we want to get the athletes performing. That’s what they are here for.

“We worked together with the IOC to address this situation, as we have throughout the seven years of this journey. We deal with all these kinds of things together.”

Peter Dallas, managing director of Hampden Park Limited, said: “LOCOG has acknowledged that the pre-match video package played at the stadium prior to the London 2012 Olympic football match on Wednesday 25th July 2012 was an error by LOCOG and we have been assured that action has been taken to ensure that there will be no repeat of this embarrassing and regrettable incident.”