Flag of South Korea

How to read it

The Act on the Flag of the Republic of Korea (Act No. 8272 of 26 January 2007) calls the flag Taegeukgi (태극기). Article 7 sets out a taegeuk circle, which the Act also calls yin and yang, at the centre and four trigrams, gun (geon), gon, gam and ri, one at each corner; a white field; the upper part of the circle red and the lower part blue; black trigrams; and proportions of three to two. The drawing method, sizes and standard colours are left to the presidential enforcement decree of July 2007. The design itself is older: King Gojong proclaimed the taegeuk flag with four trigrams the national flag on 6 March 1883, and the Republic of Korea issued construction guidelines on 15 October 1949.

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Which way up

The Act puts the red half of the taegeuk on top and the blue half below, so a flag with the blue half above is upside down.

The four trigrams

The Ministry pairs each trigram with a part of nature: geon the sky, gon the earth, gam water and ri fire. It says the four are specific representations of the movement and harmony of yin and yang, around the taegeuk at the centre. The official English translation of the Act spells the first one “gun”; the Ministry’s own pages spell it “geon”.

How the flag came about

The need for a flag came with the Korea–United States treaty of 1882. In his journal, Park Yeong-hyo, King Gojong’s envoy to Japan, wrote that he made a flag with a taegeuk circle and four trigrams aboard ship in September 1882, and it was used from 25 September. King Gojong made it the national flag by royal order on 6 March 1883, but with no fixed rules the drawing varied. The Provisional Government issued a style guide on 29 June 1942, and in 1949 the new Republic’s National Flag Correction Committee set construction guidelines. The Korea Times describes the Taegeukgi as a symbol of the March 1 Independence Movement of 1919, when people holding the flag called for Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule.

How the Act has it flown

The flag is flown on national holidays, Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day and during the mourning period of a state funeral, and the Act allows it to fly every day and around the clock. At half-mast it is lowered by its own width, leaving a gap the height of the flag below the finial. The finial is a golden bud of the rose of Sharon with five calyces. Citizens salute the flag with the right hand on the left chest, or with a hand salute. Unlike China’s flag law, which bars the flag from trademarks and advertising, the Korean Act allows the flag and its pattern on goods and at ceremonies, except where it is cut, damaged or used in a way that causes repugnance.