NAGOYA, Japan (AP) — South Korean field hockey players were perplexed Friday when the national anthem of North Korea was played — instead of their own — before a men’s field hockey match against Bangladesh at the Asian Games.
South Korean players looked on, unsure of how to respond. Many South Korean players stood at attention, some ran their hands through their hair, and some left their right hand over their heart as the music played.
Organizers quickly corrected the problem and played the correct anthem.
South Korea won the match 5-0. The Asian Games open officially on Saturday.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency called the situation an “awkward mishap.”
“Standing with their hands over their hearts in front of the unfurled South Korean flag, the South Korean players could not hide their bewilderment,” Yonhap reported.
“Belatedly realizing the mistake, the organizing committee played Bangladesh's national anthem first before playing South Korea's," Yonhap added. “However, pressed for time ahead of the scheduled match start, the referee instructed players to exchange greetings while the South Korean anthem was still playing, forcing South Korean athletes to start the match without being able to sing the anthem.”
Some matches at the Asian Games have been played before the official opening to accommodate a crowded schedule which features more than 11,000 athletes, more than the Summer Olympics.
See full AP coverage of Asian sports here
A North Korean offical wears their national flag during a ceremony for the Asian Games at the athletes village in Nagoya, Japan, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man was killed by a shark as he swam off a Western Australian city beach Friday, police said.
Search boats and helicopters extensively searched the ocean off Sorrento Beach in Perth's northern suburbs after the late morning attack without finding any trace of the victim, a police statement said.
But police were confident the “swimmer died as a result of the attack,” the statement said.
Witnesses reported seeing blood in the water.
“My friend said, ‘Jac, I think there’s been a shark attack,’ and I looked out to the ocean and I could see a pool of blood,” beach walker Jacqui Rapaic told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Local Ryan Rowe reached the beach soon afterward and said he was was told by an onlooker “someone had been bitten by a shark.”
“I couldn’t believe there was that much blood (that had) come out of a human body,” Rowe told The West Australian newspaper.
Authorities closed the beach to swimmers. The witnesses had identified the swimmer as a man and police did not identify him further.
A surfer sustained a serious leg wound in a shark attack Monday near Geraldton, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Perth.
There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year.
Three spearfishing divers were killed by sharks off the Australian coast in four weeks over May and June. In January, a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.
Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks a year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database, a partnership of the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the New South Wales state government.
Police stand on Sorrento Beach, in Perth, Australia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, after a suspected fatal shark attack. (Andrew O'Connor/Australian Broadcasting Corp via AP)
A police boat and and helicopter patrol the area at Sorrento Beach, in Perth, Australia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, after a suspected fatal shark attack. (Andrew O'Connor/Australian Broadcasting Corp via AP)
