[Anchor]

Recently, clothes and accessories featuring incorrectly drawn versions of the South Korean national flag, the Taegukgi, are widely circulating domestically. They are reportedly misproduced in China.

Reporter Cho Min-ki has the story.

[Reporter]

Nowadays, "flawed Taegukgi" designs can easily be found in everyday life.

Examples include the red and blue halves of the central Taeguk symbol being inverted upside down, or all four trigrams (gonaegamri) drawn with five bars each.

The correct Taegukgi features a central Taeguk emblem with red on top and blue on bottom, accompanied by the four trigrams arranged clockwise starting from the upper-left in their designated number of bars.

We visited a shop selling these incorrect Taegukgi accessories.

When asked why such flawed products were displayed right at the front of the shelf, the merchant blamed manufacturing in China.

[Taegukgi Accessory Vendor: (The design is different from a regular national flag.) The kids in China made it wrong. It's not our fault. Plus, it's hard to see clearly. You seem to be making a big deal out of nothing.]

Critics argue that even for items manufactured overseas, verification is naturally a must.

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

[Kim Su-hong / Dalseong-gun, Daegu: Since our national flag is a symbolic object, I feel there is a desire and sentiment for people to understand it properly.]

The problem is not limited to traditional markets; T-shirts and other items distorting the shape and arrangement of the Taeguk symbol or the four trigrams are openly being sold on major domestic online shopping malls as well.

While Chinese e-commerce platforms like AliExpress are involved, a major overseas brand also sparked controversy last month by releasing a product with an incorrect Taegukgi design.

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

[Seo Kyoung-duk / Professor, Convergence Studies, Sungshin Women's University: Selling flawed products related to the Taegukgi is quite embarrassing. It's a very unfavorable situation that tarnishes the national image.]

Although the current "Act on the National Flag of the Republic of Korea" mandates standards for the production, hoisting, management, and maintenance of the flag's dignity, it lacks separate penalty provisions, leaving no legal basis to sanction the distribution and sale of incorrect national flags.

Calls are growing louder for stricter inspection of domestic manufacturing and distribution processes regarding products featuring South Korea's national symbols.

(Camera Reporter: Kang Si-woo, Video Editor: Cho Mu-hwan, Design: Kang Yun-jung)