The mistake over the NK flag was just crass
If it was a mistake...  
Of course you are quite right Ian. We will almost certainly never know 
the real truth of why this happened and that in itself is frustrating, annoying and another example of the arrogance and remoteness of LOCOG and the IOC in general. It could have been some thick yob tasked with the scoreboard computer, or some right wing quasi-political activist trying to make a point about North Korea's political intransigence and isolation from the world. I have to say though that applying Occam's razor gives the most likely scenario here - that it was an ignorant, unintelligent lazy yob tasked with the programming of the scoreboard computer who would not pass a primary school geography test. 
The question is, why did someone like this get such a responsible job in the first place. Also from what I have seen, the 'security' force is staffed by many people who would score even less in the same sort of test. A very worrying idea which has clearly raised the fears of America's favourite (or not) mormon Mitt Romney as evinced by this article today on the BBC news website:  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18997912Cameron's response is priceless - the classic example of a politician completely out of touch with the mood of the people. I love the line at the end where he says: "I think we'll show the whole world not just that we've come together as a United Kingdom, but also we're extremely good at welcoming people from across the world." More crass insensitivity given the fact that Scots nationalists are desperate to leave said kingdom, and we the Welsh have fought long and hard for control of our own destiny. I don't think there is anyone in any doubt about the Irish republican position on the issue. Furthermore, I think all politicians in the UK are unanimous in admitting now that we have been way 'too good' in welcoming people from all over the world. So good in fact, that this 'welcome all' open door policy is destroying the fabric of the nation they have all come to take a piece of in the first place. 
Now that we have blown circa £25Bn (with all the hidden costs - which is about what it cost America to land a man on the moon in the 1960s) on a grandiose party we can ill afford, it seems to me that we have three choices. There is nothing we can do - we'll never get that money back so we can either:
1. Grumble and complain about the games with a black sarcasm and harbour a secret hope that something goes catastrophically wrong.
or 
2. Sit back with a few beers (or whatever)  and watch some incredibly inspiring and movingly human moments of sporting glory.
or
3. Ignore it completely.