Fans left confused after Wales welcomes Korea with Chinese characters

An official Welsh sport social media account came under fire Thursday after posting an illustration welcoming the Korean national football team to Wales that prominently featured Chinese characters instead of Korea's hangul.

An illustration uploaded by the official Welsh @Cymru X account prominently features the Chinese word for ″Korea″ on a post welcoming the Korean national football team to Cardiff on Thursday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

An official Welsh sport social media account came under fire Thursday after posting an illustration welcoming the Korean national football team to Wales that prominently featured Chinese characters instead of Korea's hangul.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, from @Cymru — the Welsh name for Wales and the account that acts as a home for all Welsh national teams — Wales welcomed Korea to Cardiff with a link to the website where people could buy tickets for a Thursday friendly between the two teams.

An illustration uploaded by the official Welsh @Cymru X account prominently features the Chinese word for ″Korea″ on a post welcoming the Korean national football team to Cardiff on Thursday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The post also included a graphic illustration showing Korean and Welsh fans outside a restaurant with "Kimchi" written in the window, a large Korean Taeguki flag on the sign and "Korea" written in Chinese lettering in the Chinese style, rather than in Korea's hangul alphabet or the traditional hanja version of Chinese lettering sometimes used on Korean documents.

The use of Chinese, which faced immediate criticism from Korean fans, appears to not be an intentional decision by the Welsh account, but instead the real-life signage found on an actual restaurant in Cardiff. The restaurant, called Kimchi, serves Korean food, although the sign suggests it either predominantly caters to a Chinese-speaking audience or is operated by Chinese-speaking owners.

A Google Maps screenshot shows the Kimchi restaurant in Cardiff, Britain, depicted in a controversial illustration uploaded by the Welsh @Cymru account ahead of a friendly with Korea on Thursday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]