Asian Games Hit By Fresh Controversy As North Korea Anthem Played Before South Korea Match

The incident left the South Korean players baffled.© X (formerly Twitter)

In a bizarre mix-up, the national anthem of North Korea was played before the men's hockey match between South Korea and Bangladesh at the Asian Games 2026 on Friday. The incident left the South Korean players baffled, with some running their hands through their hair over the mishap ahead of the game at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, located nearly 30 kilometres from Nagoya. The organisers corrected the mistake and played South Korea's anthem after Bangladesh's national anthem. According to Yonhap, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee stated that it "lodged an official complaint with the organising committee over the anthem mix-up, demanding an official apology and prevention of a recurrence."

It added that the match was delayed, and the referee ordered the players to shake hands and get ready to play even before the anthem ended.

South Korea defeated Bangladesh 5-0 in the pool match, with Sim Jae-won, Lee Gang-san, Oh Se-yong, Bae Soung-min and Yang Ji-hun scoring one goal each.

The 2023 Asiad bronze medallists made light work of Bangladesh but were not taking their opponents lightly.

"We saw Bangladesh as a dark horse. We wanted to lock things down defensively in the first quarter," South Korea head coach Min Tae-seok said, as quoted by Yonhap.

"And then we wanted to be more aggressive in the second quarter. Our players scored those goals after making their adjustments to the venue."

Min also spoke about the anthem mishap.

"I can't believe something like this happened at an international competition," Min said.

South Korea and Bangladesh are placed in Pool A along with four other teams, including defending gold medallists India, hosts and 2023 silver medallists Japan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the South Korea women's team also won its opener against Chinese Taipei 3-1 in Pool A later in the day.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Featured Video Of The Day

India Ends CWG Boxing Campaign With Record-Breaking Seven Gold Medals