How to draw the flag of South Korea

The flag of South Korea is a white field with a red-and-blue taegeuk at the centre, surrounded by four black trigrams, one towards each corner. Below is how to construct it step by step, with the measurements written as fractions so they work at any size — on paper, on a whiteboard or in an art program. If you would rather test yourself first, you can draw it from memory and get scored.

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Step by step

  1. Start with a rectangle in the proportions 3:2. If you are working on paper, 15 cm wide by 10 cm tall is a convenient size — every measurement below is given as a fraction, so any size works as long as the shape is right.
  2. Fill the whole rectangle with white (#ffffff).
  3. Draw the taegeuk — a circle of radius 25% of the height, split by an S-curve into red above and blue below, tilted so the dividing axis runs towards the upper-left corner.
  4. Add the four black trigrams, one towards each corner: three bars each, some solid and some broken. Their positions matter more than getting every bar right.

The colours

These are the shades used in the reference drawing. Official specifications are usually given in Pantone; the hex values below are the closest common screen equivalents.

The mistakes people make

Test yourself

Reading how a flag is built and being able to reproduce it from memory are different skills, and the gap between them is bigger than most people expect. Draw the flag of South Korea from memory and the game will score how close you got, or try today's flag if you want to be surprised.

Other flags to draw