At the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the national squads of South and North Korea will march one after the other as 176th and 177th among 204 participating teams.

The chances of the two Korean teams marching jointly wearing the same uniform is low.

The Korea Olympic Committee said the host country, China, decided the march order of all participating nations according to the number of strokes in the first Chinese letter of each country's name. It added that, although Beijing has not yet officially notified Seoul on the marching order, the two Koreas' flags have already been placed side by side according to the order at the athletic village.

Beijing used the Chinese character for “han” of the nation’s official title, "Dae-han-min-guk," which has 12 strokes.