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Images of the North Korean players were shown on a big
screen at Hampden beside the South Korean flag
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The North
Korean women's football team have walked off the pitch at their Olympic match
in Glasgow after their images were shown on a screen beside a South Korean
flag.
Kick-off
was scheduled for 19:45 BST. The game started over an hour late.
North Korea
are playing Colombia in the second of the Olympic matches being held at
Glasgow's Hampden stadium.
Games
organisers in London have apologised to North Korean officials for the mistake.
The error
occurred when a video package was being shown ahead of kick-off, with the North
Koreans noticing that their faces were being pictured alongside the South
Korean flag.
Relations
between the two Koreas have been tense since the armistice which brought an end
to fighting in the Korean War in 1953.
South Korea
will face North Korea in the first round of the men's Olympic table tennis team
event after the pair were drawn against each other on Wednesday.
A statement
released by London 2012 organisers said: "Today ahead of the women's
football match at 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 apologise to the team and the National Olympic
Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."
It was not
immediately clear who had produced the video which was shown in the stadium.
Hampden
Park media manager Andy Mitchell said: "The South Korean flag was shown in
the video package on the screen before the kickoff and the North Koreans were
naturally very upset about that.
"We
have made a full apology to the team and the North Korean NOC. A genuine
mistake was made for which we apologise."
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| The woman presumed to be Ri Sol-ju was pictured in images released bythe state news agency |
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