The post in question was titled "11 things you may not know about South Korea" was published to mark the start of three years until the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and purported to claim that the country is full of plastic surgery addicts among other bizarre statements, including that Koreans are workaholics.

Perhaps the strangest comment came on the subject of Korean cuisine, where the post seemed to suggest that South Koreans eat live octopus.

"Like seafood? Try sannakji, a Korean dish. Preparation is quite simple. Find a small (live) octopus, cut it up and serve immediately," the post read.

It led to Pyeongchang 2018 raising the subject with the IOC. 

"During a conference call on Tuesday afternoon, we informed the IOC that some pieces of information included in the slideshow were inaccurate," a Pyeongchang 2018 official told Yonhap News Agency.

"For instance, the line about plastic surgery referred to data from just one statistical research company, which can be misleading."

The post appeared on the Olympic Athletes' Hub section of the IOC website and had to be deleted after it made derogatory claims about South Korea ©IOC



According to the same official, the IOC subsequently expressed regret at the situation and the controversial post was then deleted.

"Our suggestions were not about the post per se," they added.

"It was about the fact that some of the information provided was counterfactual."

The post on the Olympic Athletes' Hub, a site set up during the London 2012 Olympics to help enhance fans' ability to access athletes' posts across social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, was written on the exact date that the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang will start in three years' time.

Despite the adverse Korean reaction to the slideshow, the post did in some ways paint the country in a positive light by claiming they were "high tech".

It also described the Korean alphabet, called the Hangeul, as logical and the success of the nation's golfers was also praised.

insidethegames has contacted the IOC for a comment but has so far not received a response. 

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