David Cameron today sought to play down the blunder, saying it was an “honest mistake” and adding: “We shouldn’t over-inflate this episode. It was unfortunate, it shouldn’t have happened, and I think we should leave it at that.”…

Meanwhile it was suggested that the players may have felt under pressure to “make a fuss” over the mix-up – for fear of being sent to the gulag if they did not.

Korea analyst Aidan Foster-Carter said: “If those footballers had not made the sort of protest they did, they would have a risk of questions being asked when they got back home and perhaps being taken to a not very nice place.”