PYEONGCHANG: South Koreans angry at North Korea’s perceived “hijacking” of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have sarcastically dubbed it the “Pyongyang Games,” but it seems many really are struggling to differentiate between the two places.
Hundreds of Twitter users in recent days have referred to “Pyongyang2018,” and while some were making a dig at the presence of North Korea at the Games, in many cases it appears to have been a simple mix-up.
The two are easily confused, but there is a world of difference between them: Pyongyang is the capital of nuclear-armed North Korea, while Pyeongchang is the South Korean region hosting the Winter Olympics.
The number of mentions of “Pyongyang2018” spiked during Friday’s opening ceremony, when hosts South Korea and the North — two countries technically still at war — marched together behind the Korean unification flag.
The growing number of apparently unintentional references to Pyongyang irked at least one Twitter user in Washington, DC, who tweeted: “The number of people mistakenly using #Pyongyang2018 to tweet about #PyeongChang2018 is not that surprising but nevertheless upsetting.”
It isn’t the first time Pyeongchang has been confused with Pyongyang. The gold medal for mix-ups goes to the Kenyan delegate to a UN conference held in Pyeongchang in 2014, who mistakenly flew to Pyongyang instead.
Landing without a valid visa, he was interrogated for five hours by North Korean customs officials and fined $500.
Eager to differentiate, provincial authorities have since re-branded the South Korean ski resort as “PyeongChang,” using an upper-case “C.”
Pyeongchang or Pyongyang? Twitter users place Olympics in North Korea
Pyeongchang or Pyongyang? Twitter users place Olympics in North Korea
Israeli court overturns conviction of officer who assaulted Palestinian journalist, citing ‘Oct. 7 PTSD’
- Judge sentenced Yitzhak Sofer to 300 hours of community service, saying officer “devoted his life to Israel’s security” and conviction was “disproportionate to severity of his actions”
- Footage shows Sofer throwing photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf to the ground, and repeatedly beating and kicking him while he covered Palestinian gatherings near Al-Aqsa Mosque
LONDON: An Israeli court overturned the conviction of a border police officer who assaulted a Palestinian journalist, ruling his actions were influenced by post-traumatic stress disorder from serving during the Oct. 7 2023 attacks.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court sentenced officer Yitzhak Sofer to 300 hours of community service for assaulting Anadolu Agency photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf in occupied East Jerusalem in December 2023.
Footage shows Sofer and other officers drawing weapons, throwing Alkharouf to the ground, and repeatedly beating and kicking him while he covered Palestinian gatherings near Al-Aqsa Mosque amid heavy restrictions.
Alkharouf was hospitalized with facial and body injuries. His cameraman, Faiz Abu Ramila, was also attacked.
Anadolu photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf violently attacked by Israeli army in occupied East Jerusalem while covering Palestinian prayers near Al-Aqsa Mosque
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) December 15, 2023
Incident highlights ongoing restrictions on Friday prayers and press freedom in region https://t.co/exT6XqjEaA pic.twitter.com/pqugK9HnOt
Sofer had been convicted in September 2024 of assault causing bodily harm (acquitted of threats) and initially faced six months’ community service, as recommended by Mahash, the Justice Ministry’s police misconduct unit.
Judge Amir Shaked accepted the defense request to cancel the conviction, replacing it with community service.
He cited Sofer’s PTSD from responding to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, noting the officer had “no prior criminal record” and had “devoted his life to Israel’s security.”
“The court cannot ignore this when considering whether the defendant’s conviction should stand,” he said, adding that while the incident is “serious and does cross the criminal threshold,” the conviction in place could cause Sofer harm “disproportionate to the severity of his actions.”
The ruling comes amid surging attacks on journalists in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since Israel’s war on Gaza began.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported Israel responsible for two-thirds of the 129 media workers killed worldwide in 2025, the deadliest year on record, citing a “persistent culture of impunity” and lack of transparent probes.
Reporters Without Borders called the Israeli army the “worst enemy of journalists” in its 2025 report, with nearly half of global reporter deaths in Gaza.
Foreign journalists face raids, arrests and intimidation. In late January 2026, Israel’s Supreme Court granted a delay on ruling a ban on foreign media access to Gaza.
