Flag: North Korea Emoji

The flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), known domestically as the Ramhongsaek Konghwagukgi (람홍색공화국기), literally "blue and red republic flag." A horizontal triband of blue, red, and blue with thin white fimbriations, and a red five-pointed star inside a white disc offset toward the hoist on the wide red central band.

🇰🇵 is one of the lowest-volume country flag emoji globally. Most use falls into three narrow buckets: news coverage of the DPRK (nuclear tests, missile launches, diplomatic summits, human-rights reports), state-aligned accounts from inside North Korea or North Korean-linked networks, and diaspora or defector accounts, which often avoid the flag entirely. Almost no travel content, fandom posting, or personal-identity use.

The emoji is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1F0 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER KU+1F1F0 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER K + U+1F1F5 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER PU+1F1F5 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER P. Added in Emoji 1.0 (2015), part of the original flag emoji set. North Korea's ISO 3166 alpha-2 code is KP.

Adopted on September 8, 1948, the day before the DPRK was proclaimed. North Korea credits founding leader Kim Il-sung, though Soviet-Korean interpreter Pak Il later claimed the USSR designed it; artist Kim Chu-gyong was also previously cited as the designer. The flag replaced the Taegeukgi that had flown over the whole peninsula, which South Korea retained.

A neutral note on display. The flag is banned from public display in South Korea under the National Security Act, with carve-outs for films, TV productions, and international sporting competitions (where it has appeared repeatedly in Seoul, Pyeongchang 2018, and Busan fixtures). This page documents the flag and its usage factually; it does not endorse any government or policy.

🇰🇵 is event-driven. There is no meaningful consumer social-media culture inside North Korea. Ordinary residents have no internet access; only a tightly controlled elite uses the domestic Kwangmyong intranet, and foreign social platforms are unreachable for the general public. What 🇰🇵 volume exists comes from outside the country.

News and policy accounts. The vast majority of 🇰🇵 emoji use is on Western news coverage (AP, Reuters, BBC, AFP), Asian wire services (Yonhap, Kyodo), and think-tank accounts covering missile tests, nuclear diplomacy, and human-rights reports. The flag functions as neutral geographic shorthand in this context.

Defector and diaspora accounts. The estimated 34,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea, plus smaller communities in the US, UK, and Japan, generally avoid the flag. Defector YouTubers and Twitter accounts more commonly use 🇰🇷 or a unified-Korea flag symbol when posting about inter-Korean identity.

State-aligned output. North Korean state media (KCNA, Rodong Sinmun) does not operate on Western social platforms directly. However, pro-DPRK accounts and independent 'friendship' organizations abroad use 🇰🇵 on Twitter/X, Telegram, and Weibo around state-ceremony dates.

Sports moments. When North Korean athletes compete internationally (2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Asian Games, AFC Asian Cup football qualifiers, Women's World Cup football in recent cycles), 🇰🇵 appears in sports-media coverage. The 2018 inter-Korean unified ice hockey team at Pyeongchang was the biggest recent sustained 🇰🇵 spike.

Diplomatic summits. The 2018 Singapore summit and 2019 Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump produced the largest 🇰🇵 social waves of the last decade outside of specific missile-test news cycles.

• 🏙️
  Capital: Pyongyang (39.02°N, 125.74°E)
• 👥
  Population: ~26.4 million (2025)
• 🗺️
  Area: 120,540 km²
• 💴
  Currency: North Korean won (KPW, ₩)
• 🗣️
  Language: Korean (Munhwaŏ variant, written in Chosŏn'gŭl)
• 📞
  Calling code: +850
• ⏰
  Time zone: Pyongyang Time (UTC+9), no DST
• 🌐
  Internet: .kp exists but effectively unreachable from outside; domestic intranet is Kwangmyong

Korea flew the Taegeukgi from 1883 through the 35-year Japanese colonial period (1910 to 1945), during which its use was banned. After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel between Soviet and US occupation zones. The North initially kept flying the Taegeukgi, then adopted its own flag as the DPRK moved toward formal statehood.

The 1948 design. The current flag was officially adopted on September 8, 1948, one day before the proclamation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on September 9. North Korean sources credit Kim Il-sung personally, though Soviet-Korean interpreter Pak Il later stated the Soviet Union designed the flag. For decades, artist Kim Chu-gyong was cited as the designer inside North Korea before the official credit shifted to Kim Il-sung.

Symbolism (official DPRK readings). The wide red central band represents 'anti-Japanese fervor and the red blood shed by Korean patriots.' The two blue outer bands represent 'the gallant visage of our people' and 'the spirit fighting for world peace.' The thin white fimbriations stand for 'one bloodline, one land, one language, one culture.' The red five-pointed star inside the white disc represents socialism. The star is offset toward the hoist at half the flag's height, a common socialist flag convention.

Legal specification. The National Flag Law of 1992 codified precise mathematical proportions for every element, including the star's diameter, the fimbriation width, and the disc-to-flag ratio. The flag is 1:2, making it longer than most national flags (which use 2:3).

At the Olympics and in international sport. The flag appears under standard IOC rules at the Olympics and at FIFA, AFC, and World Athletics events. At inter-Korean fixtures (2000 Sydney, 2018 Pyeongchang), athletes from both Koreas have marched under a Korean Unification Flag instead: a white flag with a solid blue silhouette of the Korean peninsula. The unified ice hockey team at Pyeongchang 2018 is the most recent example.

• •The flag was adopted on September 8, 1948, one day before the DPRK was officially proclaimed on September 9.
• •North Korea and South Korea flew the same flag (Taegeukgi) from 1883 until 1948, when the DPRK adopted its own design.
• •Public display of 🇰🇵 is illegal in South Korea under the National Security Act, with carve-outs for films, TV productions, and international sporting events hosted in the South.
• •At inter-Korean Olympic events, the two countries sometimes march under the Korean Unification Flag, a white flag with a solid blue peninsula silhouette. The 2018 Pyeongchang unified women's ice-hockey team is the most recent example.
• •The flag's 1:2 ratio makes it longer than most national flags (which use 2:3). North Korea shares this ratio with the UK, the US, Canada, and several African nations.
• •Ordinary North Koreans have no access to foreign social media. The domestic Kwangmyong intranet is used by a few hundred thousand people; full internet access is reserved for a small elite of a few thousand.
• •In December 2023, Kim Jong-un publicly cried while discussing North Korea's declining birth rate, the first time the DPRK publicly acknowledged its demographic crisis.