South and North Korea will not march together at the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympics, as they did at the Olympics last month, because they cannot agree on a united flag that erases islands disputed with Japan.
Japan complained to South Korea about fans waving the Korean peninsula flag at a friendly women’s ice hockey match in the Olympics between the combined North and South Korean team and Sweden. The flag depicts a map of the undivided Korean peninsula, including the disputed islands, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the Sea of Japan.
North Korea’s delegation to the Paralympics said on Thursday it “does not accept the fact that Dokdo cannot be marked due to political issues held in Korea”, but in response to the North’s claim, the International Paralympics Committee said the two Koreas will march individually as the flag cannot be changed.
