National Flag of the Republic of Korea (1997)

As Korea began to have increased contact with foreign countries in the late 19th century, it was realised a flag was required for national identification purposes.

In 1882, the basic pattern of the current national flag was established. It is called the Taegeukgi, deriving its name from the central circle emblem on the flag, which is called a taegeuk circle. 

By the turn of the 20th century, years of increasing influence from Japan led to the occupation of Korea by that country, first as a protectorate in 1905 and then as a territory in 1910. The Japanese occupation continued until the end of World War II.

Just before the end of the Second World War, the United States of America (USA) and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) agreed to divide Korea along the 38th parallel (a border point roughly dividing Korea in half), this essentially was to assist with the processing of the surrendering Japanese troops at the war’s end. 

The USA occupied the southern part of Korea and the USSR the north, with both countries introducing administrations sympathetic to their leanings in the territory they controlled. 

This ultimately led to the failure of reunification discussions between the USA and USSR and to the establishment of two independent states, the Republic of Korea (ROK-South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK-North Korea).

In August 1948, one month before the establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea was formed and, shortly afterwards, it adopted the Taegeukgi as the national flag.

The current flag dates from October 1997.

The Symbolic Meaning

White is a traditional colour of the Korean people.

The centre of the flag contains an equally divided red and blue disc; this is called a taegeuk circle and represents the dual forces of yin (blue) and yang (red). 

The yin and yang balance each other and maintain an harmonious existence by being complementary opposites, positive and negative, active and passive, male and female, night and day, good and evil and so on. 

Yin is the passive or static mode and yang the active or dynamic mode.

The four trigrams (when grouped in sets of three lines they are called kwae) surrounding the taegeuk circle represent combinations of yin (broken lines) and yang (unbroken lines).

These four were chosen because out of the possible eight kwae they appear the same even when placed upside down. 

The trigram in the upper left corner (3 unbroken lines) is ‘geon’, it represents heaven – justice, the south and summer.

Its compliment, the trigram in the lower right corner (3 broken lines), is ‘gon’, it represents earth – fertility, the north and winter.

The trigram in the upper right corner (2 broken bars and an unbroken bar in the middle) is ‘gam’, it represents water – life, the west and autumn.

Its compliment, the trigram in the lower left corner (2 unbroken and 1 broken line), is ‘i’, it represents fire – wisdom, the east and spring.