Players from both Koreas stay on opposite sides in Olympic village

"Which country's flag is that?" the British reporter sitting next to me asked when a bus passed by the Olympic village in Barra da Tijuca, a western suburb of Rio de Janeiro. He was pointing at five North Korean flags hung on the first building.

This reporter thought the flags could imply North Korea was welcoming visitors to Rio. But later I learned why North Korean players chose to stay in that building, when I attended the Olympic village opening ceremony on Tuesday local time.

The Olympic village is a huge apartment complex, which consists of 3,604 units in 31 buildings, parks, walking trails, and tennis courts. Its structure and arrangement are similar to those of newly built apartment complexes in South Korea.

The Olympic Organizing Committee (OOC) surveyed on the wished-for building by each country in advance, specifically the building number and the building direction. The rule is that countries with more players were asked to choose first and countries with less players had to choose later.

North Korea chose the furthest and most isolated apartment. There are 31 apartment buildings from number 1 and number 31 and the 31st building is where North Korean players are staying. "North Korea usually chooses the most isolated building in international competitions," a Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) official noted. "I think that they do not like to interact with other nationals." That is why North Korean flags were the first flags that we saw as we were entering the complex. Next to North Korea was Brazil, the host country, which chose the 30th building.

Korean players chose the sixth building, almost the opposite side of North Korean players' accommodation. The reason that South Korea chose the building is that when the OOC was inspecting the apartments last year, the sixth building was used as the model house. A number of inspections took place in the building for that reason. But the building still some problems such as no hot water and clogged toilets. Fortunately, the condition seems much better than other countries' accommodations such as Australia's, where some players ran out of the house and said, "I cannot stay here!" South Korean players occupy from the 1st floor to the 11th floor in the 18-story building. The upstairs floors are taken by Taiwanese and Indonesian players.

Regrettably, I did not see any Korean flag in front of the building. The KOC sent various supplies including flags to Brazil four months ago, but the cargo did not pass customs yet because dockyard workers at Sao Paulo have been going on strike.

China sent 416 players and stay at the 13th building, which is placed in the middle of the complex. They say that it is convenient to live in the building as there are restaurants right behind the building. Japanese players chose the 16th building because it is close to the bus terminal, thus giving easy transportation.

Most countries have hung their national flags, but I could not see the flags of the U.S., which sent 555 players. Reportedly, the U.S. decided not to hang any national flag in fear of terrorist attacks although they use an entire building.

리우데자네이루=이헌재 기자uni@donga.com