Organisers of the upcoming Asian Games in the South Korean city of Incheon have removed all national flags from streets near the venues amid protests about the flying of the North Korean flag.
"Between late Wednesday and early Thursday, all the national flags were removed from the streets," said an Asian Games organising committee spokesman.
The move followed protests by anti-North Korean activists about the appearance of the North Korean flag in the venue neighbourhoods.
"We decided to withdraw the North Korean national flag along with all the other national flags.”
The Yonhap news agency reported that the organisers were mainly concerned about the possibility of the North Korean flags being vandalised.
The national flags will still fly at all the venues, but the ones outside have been replaced by Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) flags and others showing the Games' emblem.
The flags of participating nations had originally decorated streets near the main Games stadium at Incheon, outside the swimming and equestrian event venues and around a football stadium in Goyang city north of Seoul.
A Goyang municipal spokesman said conservative activists had peppered local officials with phone calls and texts protesting the flying of the North Korean flag.
North Korea is sending a 273-member delegation to the Asiad, which begins September 19.
North Korean flags were flown along with those of other nations in the streets during the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and the 2003 Universiade in Daegu.
OCA rules dictate that national flags should be displayed in all stadiums and ‘their neighbourhood’ — but the organising committee spokesman said the definition of neighbourhood was vague.
There was no immediate reaction from the OCA to the flag changes.
The North's participation in the Incheon Asiad was only confirmed after months of tortuous, heated negotiations that coincided with a spike in military tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Arguments over the size of the North Korean flag and Seoul's refusal to foot the entire North delegation's bill saw Pyongyang threaten a boycott over the South's ‘arrogance’.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2014.
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