Upside-Down Patterns and Five-Bar Trigrams: Asking About 'Incorrect Taegeukgi'

[Anchor]

Many of you probably hung the Taegeukgi (South Korean national flag) outside your homes yesterday (August 15) for Liberation Day. However, it is said that quite a few "incorrect Taegeukgi" designs can easily be found on accessories and clothing we encounter in daily life.

Reporter Cho Min-ki investigated the reality of this situation.

[Reporter]

Recently, "incorrect Taegeukgi" can be spotted without much difficulty in various places around daily life.

Examples include the red and blue parts of the Taegeuk pattern being flipped upside down, or all four trigrams (the four black bars) being drawn with five bars each.

The proper Taegeukgi features a Taegeuk pattern with red on top and blue on the bottom, centered, with the four trigrams known as "geon, gon, gam, ri" arranged clockwise starting from the upper left with specific bar counts.

We visited a shop that sells incorrect Taegeukgi accessories.

When asked why such flawed products were displayed right at the front of the shelf, the response was that it was because they were made in China.

[Taegeukgi Accessory Vendor : (The shape is different from a regular Taegeukgi?) The kids in China made it wrong. We didn't make it wrong. It's also hard to see well. I think you're being too sensitive.]

This naturally leads to criticism that even products manufactured overseas should surely be verified.

[Lee Eun-sil / Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province : A lot of foreigners come to see things, and it is quite regrettable that such items are put out as souvenirs.]

[Kim Su-hong / Dalseong County, Daegu : Because our country's Taegeukgi is a symbolic item, I think there is a feeling and a desire for people to understand it properly.]

The problem is that not only in traditional markets, but also on major domestic online shopping malls, T-shirts and other items distorting the shape and arrangement of the Taegeuk pattern or the four trigrams are being sold openly.

In addition to Chinese e-commerce platforms like AliExpress, a controversy arose last month when a well-known overseas brand released a product with an incorrect Taegeukgi design.

[Park Mi-kyung / Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province : First of all, even our own people need to know properly what the Taegeukgi looks like.]

[Seo Kyoung-duk / Professor, Department of Convergence, Sungshin Women's University : Selling flawed products related to the Taegeukgi is quite a shameful thing, and it is a very bad situation that undermines the national image.]

While the current "Republic of Korea National Flag Act" mandates standards for the production, hoisting, management, and maintenance of the dignity of the national flag, there are no separate penal provisions, leaving no legal grounds to sanction the distribution and sale of incorrect Taegeukgi designs.

Voices are growing louder that the production and distribution processes of goods related to South Korea's national symbols must be strictly inspected.

(Video Reporter : Kang Si-woo | Video Editor : Cho Mu-hwan | Designer : Kang Yun-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.