Korean Flags

Korea is a region in East Asia and comprises of two countries: South Korea and North Korea. It is also known as the Korean peninsula, and is bordered by China to the north and west, as well as Japan to the East and Russia to the North.

During the 1st Millenium, Korea was divided between the 3 competing states of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, these were known as "The Three Kingdoms of Korea". Eventually, these Kingdoms unified to form Goryeo. Goryeo, also known as Koryo, whose name developed into the modern exonym "Korea", was a highly cultured state that created the world's first metal movable type in 1234 (a proto cannon). Eventually Goryeo fell under Mongolian control for over a century, before re-gaining its independence under the Joseon Dynasty. For the next 200 years, Joseon (Korea) eventually became to be very isolationist, they usually mirrored the policies of China so this was not unusual. This led to European explorers nicknaming Korea as "The Hermit Kingdom" (to which North Korea is still nicknamed today). During this time, they defeated a Japanese invasion (around the 16th Century), however they could not resist the Japanese 300 years later during the late 19th Century where they occupied and then annexed Korea. By the end of WW2, after the invasion of Manchuria, Japan surrendered and Korea gained its independaence but was occupied by the USA and the Soviet Union. Since 1948 Korea has been divided between two distinct sovereign states: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) in the North and the Republic of Korea in the South. Both countries were not democratic at first, but eventually during the 1970's South Korea became democratic and has since then had a dramatic improvement of living standards compared with its neighbour in the north. North Korea is currently an isolationist dynastic dictatorship.

On the South Korean flag, the background is white, a traditional colour in Korean culture, it represents peace and purity. The circle in the middle represents balance in the universe: The red half represents positive cosmic forces, and the blue half represents the opposing negative cosmic forces. The trigrams represent movement and harmony as fundamental principles. Eac trigram represents one of the four classical elements. (from top-right clockwise direction: heaven, fire, water, earth in Korean terms)

On the North Korean flag, the colours - red, white and blue are considered national colours and symbolize respectively: revolutionary traditions; purity, strength, and diginity and sovereignity, peace, and friendship.

Click on each flag to see the other flag :)

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