A blue map of the whole of Korea on white: the flag with which North and South march together at the big championships.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio, white, with the silhouette of the Korean peninsula in the centre.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
Korea was split in two in 1945
In 1990, during the Asian Games in Beijing
Its official debut was in 1991
Afterwards the two delegations marched together behind it at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
Ulleungdo is added in 2002, and the Liancourt rocks in 2003
In 2018 the two eastern islands were removed, and in 2019 Ulleungdo came back
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The Korean unification flag belongs to no country. It is a blue map of the whole peninsula on a white field, and it is used by North Korea and South Korea when they compete or march together. For many it is also a symbol of the wish to be one country again.
Korea was split in two in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, and since 1948 there have been two states. Each competes with its own team.
In 1990, during the Asian Games in Beijing, the two governments agreed to form a joint team. Flying two flags at once was a problem, so a third, neutral one was thought of: the whole peninsula. That team never got together, but the flag was seen in the stands. Its official debut was in 1991, at the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba (Japan), with the popular song ‘Arirang’ as the anthem. Afterwards the two delegations marched together behind it at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Athens 2004 and Pyeongchang 2018.
The base drawing has not changed, but the islands it carries have come and gone depending on politics.
1991-2002
Only the peninsula and the island of Jeju.
2003-2018
Ulleungdo is added in 2002, and the Liancourt rocks in 2003. Japan also claims those rocks.
2019
In 2018 the two eastern islands were removed, and in 2019 Ulleungdo came back.
Map of the peninsula
a single Korea, without the line that divides it today.
White
the neutral background. Both Koreas say the map is a symbol, not an exact drawing.
At the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships, the unified women’s team won the final 3-2 against China. China had won eight titles in a row.
That same year, at the under-20 World Cup in Portugal, united Korea beat Argentina 1-0 in Lisbon. In the quarter-finals it lost 5-1 to Brazil.
At the 2018 Winter Games the International Olympic Committee asked for the Liancourt rocks to be removed, because carrying them would be a political gesture. South Korea accepted.
According to the specialist Brian Reynolds Myers, in the South it is seen as a symbol of peace and coexistence, and in the North as the wish to unite Korea under its own government.
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Text based on the article “Korean Unification Flag” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: File:Unification flag of Korea (pre 2006).svg: Various derivative work: Valentim, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
