Flag of North Korea
national flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
The national flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) consists of a wide horizontal red stripe bordered above and below by a thin white stripe and a broad blue stripe. The red stripe is charged near the hoist with a five-pointed red star inside a white disc. The design of the flag is defined in the North Korean constitution and regulations regarding the use and manufacture of the flag are outlined in the country's national flag law.
The flag was officially adopted on 8 September 1948, with the passing of North Korea's first constitution by the 1st Supreme People's Assembly. The North Korean government credits Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and first leader, with designing the flag; however, North Korean artist Kim Chu-gyong was previously recognised as its designer. Pak Il, a Soviet-Korean interpreter, claimed that it was designed by the government of the Soviet Union, and his account was corroborated by another Soviet-Korean, Chŏng Sangjin.
The display of the North Korean flag is banned in South Korea by the National Security Act, but exceptions have been made for film and television productions, as well as sports competitions.
Names
In North Korea, the flag is known by various names, including the "Blue and Red Flag of the Republic", the "Blue and Red National Flag", the "Red-Blue Five-Pointed Star Flag", and the "Flag of the Republic". In South Korea, it is known as the "Flag of the People's Republic" or pejoratively as the "Flag of the Northern Puppet".
Design
The design of the flag was defined in Chapter VII, Article 170 of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, 1948 (2014 revision).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Flag of North Korea” is national flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Flag, North and Korea, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q103064. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948 and 2014.
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This entry incorporates text from “Flag of North Korea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.