Flag of Daegu

The flag of Daegu, a large city in the south-east of South Korea, is green with a white symbol: three triangles and a curve drawing Mount Palgong and the Nakdong river.

How it came about

Metropolitan since 1995, Daegu debuted a flag on 10 October 1996: a blue field, golden triangles and the old name, TAEGU.

How it has changed

Four flags in twenty-five years: 1977, 1996 and two in 2001.

1. 

   1977-1996

   Blue with a white emblem over the characters 大邱 and a dot that was the sun: approved in 1926, under Japanese rule, it lasted seventy years.

2. 

   1996-2001

   The same blue field debuts the golden symbol of triangles and the word TAEGU.

3. 

   March-December 2001

   The new romanisation of 2000 changes how the name is written: now DAEGU; everything else is identical.

4. 

   2001

   On 29 December the ground becomes green and the drawing white, as today.

What it means

The official explanation, repeated in the ordinance:

• Triangles

  Mount Palgong, which surrounds the city.

• Curve

  the Nakdong, the great river of the region.

• The whole

  a city full of energy, looking to the future and to the world.

That the shape recalls the letter ㄷ, the initial of Daegu in Korean, is popular reading with no official mention; the same goes for the green.

Fun facts

1. Three flags in five years

   Daegu changed its flag in 1996, in March 2001 and in December 2001; the one of March only rewrote the name.

2. A colonial emblem of seventy years

   Its predecessor of 1977 carried an emblem from 1926, born under Japanese rule: it survived until 1996, more than fifty years after independence.

Location