The national flag of the Republic of Korea, also known as the Taegeukgi (Korean: 태극기; Hanja: 太極旗), has three parts: a white rectangular background, a red and blue taegeuk in its center, accompanied by four black trigrams, one in each corner.

In 1876, the absence of a national flag became an issue for Korea, at the time reigned over by the Joseon dynasty.

At that time, some proposed to create a national flag, but the Joseon government looked upon the matter as unimportant and unnecessary.

[1] The most popular proposal was described in the "Korea Strategy" papers, written by the Chinese delegate Huang Zunxian.

The U.S. emissary Robert Wilson Shufeldt suggested that Korea adopt a national flag to represent its sovereignty.

The king of Joseon, Kojong, ordered government officials Sin Heon [ko] and Kim Hong-jip to begin working on a new flag.

[2] On 14 May 1882, Park Yeong-hyo presented a scale model for taegukgi to the Joseon government, it was created in cooperate with Kim Ok-gyun and others with advice from British consul William George Aston and British captain James, later Gojong approved the design.

[5][6] The 2 October 1882 issue of the Japanese newspaper Jiji shimpō [ja] credited Gojong as the designer of the taegukgi (i.e., a flag with a red and blue taegeuk and four trigrams).

On 15 October 1949, the Ministry of Education and Culture announced National Flag Production Law.

"[27] Myers also stated in a 2011 thesis that: "Judging from the yin-yang flag's universal popularity in South Korea, even among those who deny the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea, it evidently evokes the [Korean] race first and the [South Korean] state second.

[30] The colors of the taegukgi are specified in the "Ordinance Act of the Law concerning the National Flag of the Republic of Korea" (Korean: 대한민국 국기법 시행령).

[32] The color scheme was unspecified until 1997, when the South Korean government decided to standardize specifications for the flag.