A BRISBANE newspaper has itself created headlines across the world after rebranding North and South Korea as "Naughty Korea" and "Nice Korea".

The Wednesday edition of the afternoon freesheet carried a medal tally in its Olympics coverage which showed "Nice Korea" narrowly ahead of "Naughty Korea" behind China, the United States, and France.

Thursday's edition's medal tally had reverted to the real North and South Korea.

The mass-market Daily Mail newspaper in Britain reported overnight that mX had "sparked a potential diplomatic storm" with the cheeky stunt.

It wrote: "The 'rebranding' has attracted a wave of interest and is trending on Twitter, where some users have accused the newspaper of 'racism'."

EuroSport.com reported: "The IOC would no doubt frown upon such judgemental antics from the paper, but considering how Games organisers ran the South Korean flag up ahead of North Korea's opening match of the Olympic football tournament then maybe it's not a bad idea trying to remind people that they are two separate nations."

Several US newspapers noted that, across the Internet, "everyone seemed to have an opinion on whether it was a brilliantly funny idea or a potential diplomatic disaster".

But Brisbane mX editor Emma Chalmers this morning said: "We considered it cheeky rather than offensive and the majority of our readers have taken it in the same spirit."

Responses on Twitter have been split.

Leighb83 wrote: "Yeah calling N & S Korea, Naughty Korea and Nice Korea is fine. As long as its fine for them to refer to us as the Dumb, Drunk, Racists."



TheGrimRecapper tweeted: "I don't know whether to laugh or be appalled mX is calling North and South as "Naughty Korea" and "Nice Korea"."

Craig Le Grice tweeted: 'This is hilarious, if slightly political.'

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The IOC would no doubt frown upon such judgemental antics from the paper, but there has yet been no official response from Olympics bosses -- nor from either of the Koreas: neither the technologically super-savvy one nor the mysterious military dictatorship.

In the latest standings, incidentally, "Naughty Korea" has four golds and one bronze to "Nice Korea's" seven gold, two silver and five bronze.

Australia has only one gold, seven silver, and three bronze.

Brisbane mX is published by News Queensland, the publisher of couriermail.com.au.

Originally published as Gold medal gag or joke that tanked?