Olympics in North Korea flag blunder

London’s Olympics got off to an embarrassing start Wednesday when North Korea’s women footballers refused to play after a mix-up over their national flag, delaying the match for more than an hour.

Hosts Great Britain had kicked off the sports festival, years in the making and costing billions of dollars, with a 1-0 win over New Zealand as women’s soccer got under way two days before the opening the ceremony.

The United States beat France 4-2 and Japan overcame Canada 2-1. But North Korea’s opener against Colombia was held up after their players were pictured next to South Korea’s flag on the big screen at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.

The North Koreans were finally persuaded to take the field and the match, scheduled for 7:45 pm (1845 GMT), finally began at 8:50 pm. Red-faced organisers were quick to apologise for the blunder.

“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,” said a statement from London 2012 organisers.

“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.”