London Olympics: Wrong flag at soccer game angers North Koreans

GLASGOW, Scotland -- The Olympic women’s soccer tournament wasn’t even able to make it through the first day of competition without a political mix-up bringing things to a halt.

When the teams from Colombia and North Korea were preparing to come out for Wednesday’s second match and Hampden Park, the North Koreans noticed the flag displayed on the stadium scoreboard was the South Korea banner.

The North Korean delegation accused Olympic organizers of a premeditated act of disrespect and returned to its dressing room, refusing to take the field until the problem was resolved. Once that was taken care of, the Colombians delayed the match further by saying they needed additional time to warm-up.

Once all that was taken care, the teams eventually kicked off more than an hour later than scheduled.

The error was addressed later in a statement from the press office of the London Games:

“Today ahead of the women’s football match and Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag. 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.”

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