Olympic Organizers Apologize for North Korea Flag Error

Posted July 26th, 2012 at 12:05 am (UTC-5)
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London Olympic organizers have apologized to North Korea after mistakenly displaying South Korea's flag before a women's football match.

North Korea refused to take the field after the error, delaying the start of their match Wednesday against Colombia by more than an hour. The North Korean team went on to win the game 2-0.

Organizers said they will take steps to ensure that type of mistake does not happen again.

In other action Wednesday, the defending gold medalist United States fell behind France 2-0, but rallied with a pair of goals from Alex Morgan to win 4-2.

Britain beat New Zealand 1-0 in the Welsh capital, Cardiff.

Competition continues Thursday with men's football matches. Opening ceremonies for the London Olympics will be held Friday.

Meanwhile, the International Association of Athletics' Federations suspended nine track and field athletes for doping violations, in a crackdown on the use of prohibited substances leading up to the Olympics.

More than 10,000 athletes are competing in 26 sports at the Olympics. The competition runs until August 12.