French Media Uses Outrageously Incorrect Flag To Represent South Korea On National TV

A French television channel is facing massive outrage from South Korean netizens after they displayed a wrong flag to represent South Korea during a news segment.

The South Korean flag (Taekukgi) | Wikimedia Commons

The broadcaster, La Chaîne Info, ran a coverage focusing on the tension between North and South Korea on December 31, KST. During the segment, the flags of both countries were displayed on the screen. But South Korea’s flag had a glaring mistake.

| @LCI/YouTube

Instead of the red-and-blue circle at the center of the Taegukgi, it had just a red circle, reminiscent of the Japanese flag.

Flag of Japan | Wikimedia Commons

The misrepresentation of their country’s flag alone was hurtful for Korean netizens. However, it was intesified tenfold due to the painful colonial history between Japan and South Korea. Many took to popular forums to express their outrage over this issue. A TheQoo post in particular, garnered quite some attention highlighting this error, with over 78,000 views and 600+ comments at the time of writing.

| theqoo

• “F*ck.”
• “Wow, that’s so rude. But didn’t they realize the wrong flag was being shown when (the host was) talking? Hmm…”
• “Are they crazy?”
• “Hah…they crossed a line.”
• “That seems intentional, doesn’t it?”
• “F*ck.”
• “Does this make any sense?”

| theqoo

• “Have they lost their minds?”
• “Is this a joke?”
• “Insane b*stards.”
• “Whoa, this is upsettingly horrible.”
• “These crazy b*astards.”
• “Wow…it’s so violently unpleasant. Crazy.”
• “Die.”
• “Argh.”

The broadcaster has not offered any explanation or apology yet.