Country flag
South Korea Flag
South Korea’s national flag is the Taegeukgi. It places a red-and-blue taegeuk circle and four black trigrams on a white field. The Ministry of the Inte...
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About South Korea and its flag
South Korea’s national flag is the Taegeukgi. It places a red-and-blue taegeuk circle and four black trigrams on a white field. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety records its origins in the late Joseon period and explains both the historic development and present symbolic reading of the design.
Flag design and meaning
A white field carries a central taegeuk disc divided into red and blue curved halves. One black trigram sits in each corner: geon, gon, gam, and ri. The central circle and the four sets of broken or unbroken bars make the flag readable even from a distance.
- White background: The Ministry of the Interior and Safety identifies the white field with brightness, purity, and peace.
- Red-and-blue taegeuk: The central mark represents the harmony of yin and yang: blue for yin and red for yang, expressing the interaction through which things arise and develop.
- Four black trigrams: The trigrams portray changing and harmonising forces; geon represents sky, gon earth, gam water, and ri fire.
History and adoption
Park Yeong-hyo used a four-trigram flag with a taegeuk circle during a mission to Japan in 1882. By royal order of 6 March 1883, King Gojong proclaimed the Taegeukgi as the national flag. Early versions varied because standards were lacking; construction guidelines followed in 1949, and the 2007 flag act established a legal framework for its management.
How to recognise this flag
- Start with the white field and the red-and-blue taegeuk disc at its centre.
- Check for four separate black trigrams in the corners, each made of three bars with a different pattern of breaks.
South Korea flag quiz context
On Name The Flag, the South Korea flag is currently grouped as very easy difficulty for quiz progression.
Its region is listed as Asia, which helps place the country among nearby geography questions in the game.
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