North Korea Shortens National Flag for First Time Since 1948
North Korea has changed the official proportions of its national flag for the first time since 1948, shortening the banner from a 1:2 height-to-width ratio to 1:1.65 in a revised constitution posted this week.
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The change is written into Article 166 of the constitution published on Naenara, the state’s external propaganda website. The red star, white disc and red, white and blue stripes are unchanged.
Constitution Sets a Shorter Ratio
The amended charter now states that “the ratio of the flag’s height to its width is 1:1.65.” The previous rule, unchanged through a September 2023 revision, set the ratio at 1:2.
The constitution was amended on March 23 at the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly. Naenara posted the full text this week, after taking the constitution section offline in March 2024.
The article keeps the familiar layout: a wide red stripe in the center, narrow white stripes above and below it, blue stripes beyond those, and a red five-pointed star inside a white circle on the hoist side.
NK News reported that a shorter flag, with thicker white stripes, was already on display at the Sept. 6 commissioning of the destroyer Kang Kon.
Official Meaning of the Colors
Naenara said the red field symbolizes the blood shed by anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. The white circle and stripes, it said, represent loyalty to the leader and the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
The blue stripes stand for an anti-imperialist struggle for peace, friendship and unity, as well as national sovereignty. The site did not explain why the proportions were changed.
Kim Imprints a Separate State
The revision fits Kim Jong Un’s drive to recast national symbols around his “two hostile states” doctrine, which treats South Korea as a separate country rather than a partner in reunification.
In 2024, Pyongyang changed its anthem lyrics, replacing “samcholli,” or “3,000 ri,” a traditional reference to the entire Korean Peninsula, with “this world,” and dropped the name “Aegukga.”
The same constitution removes provisions on national reunification and, in Article 2, defines North Korean territory as bordering China and Russia to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south. Seoul is trying to revive regional talks with Pyongyang, but officials have played down the chances of an early breakthrough.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said keeping the basic design while changing the proportions “is an attempt to preserve the legacy of previous leaders while imprinting a distinct national identity associated with the Kim Jong-un era.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the original 1:2 flag was designed in Moscow and given to founding leader Kim Il Sung after World War II, and that a 1948 proposal to shorten it was rejected. The newspaper said the long banner sometimes folded in a way that hid the red star.
Kamer Kurunç
Kamer Kurunç is the Team Leader of Clash Report and has led the outlet for four years. He oversees its breaking world news coverage, from the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war to defense and global politics. His focus is fast, verified, source-based reporting. Follow him on X at @kamerknc.
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