North Korea Shortens Its National Flag in First Proportions Change Since 1948

A shorter flag, written into the constitution

North Korea has changed the official proportions of its national flag for the first time since its founding in 1948, replacing a shape twice as wide as it is tall with a shorter rectangle. Article 166 of the revised constitution sets the ratio of height to width at 1:1.65, replacing the longstanding 1:2 specification.

The change reduces the flag's width by 17.5 percent when its height stays the same. A flag measuring 100 centimeters tall would now be 165 centimeters wide, rather than 200 centimeters. Its red star, white circle and bands of red, white and blue remain.

The revised constitution carries a note saying it was amended and supplemented on March 23, 2026, at the first session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's legislature. The new flag specification had become public through Naenara, the country's external propaganda website, by November 13.

Kim Jong Un's government has changed more than the dimensions of a national symbol. The same constitutional revision removes language about Korean reunification and names the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name, as the country bordering North Korea to the south.

North Korean authorities have not publicly explained why they chose the new flag proportions. The change comes alongside revisions to the national anthem, new explanations of the flag's symbolism and efforts to put the national flag on everyday goods. Together, those developments show how Kim's government is presenting North Korea as a separate state whose citizens owe their loyalty to its leadership and ruling party.

What changes when the flag gets shorter?

Article 166 retains the flag's familiar arrangement: a broad red band across the middle, narrow white bands immediately above and below it, and blue bands along the upper and lower edges. A red star with five points sits inside a white circle near the flagpole.

The ratio describes the relationship between two measurements, rather than setting one compulsory size. Under the new rule, a small flag and a large flag should have the same rectangular shape. For every unit of height, each has 1.65 units of width.

The previous ratio, still specified in the constitution revised in September 2023, required two units of width for every unit of height. Subtracting 1.65 from 2 gives a reduction of 0.35 units. Dividing that reduction by the former width of 2 produces the 17.5 percent decrease.

The new flag remains wider than it is tall. Its appearance is less stretched horizontally, rather than square or upright. Images displayed on Naenara also appear to show thicker white bands, described as roughly one third the thickness of the blue bands. The constitutional wording continues to describe the white bands as narrow without giving a new numerical measurement for them.

From a March amendment to public display

North Korea's legal revision and the public recognition of the flag change took place at different times. The constitution identifies March 23 as the amendment date, while the revised proportions attracted attention in November after the text became accessible on Naenara.

A photograph issued by the Korean Central News Agency on September 7 was also identified as showing a flag with the new proportions. That places a visible example between the constitutional amendment and the wider public attention in November.

The main steps in the change are:

• 1948: North Korea adopts its national flag with a height to width ratio of 1:2.
• September 2023: A constitutional revision retains the 1:2 specification.
• 2024: North Korea changes a national anthem lyric referring to the whole Korean Peninsula and adopts a National Anthem Law.
• March 23, 2026: The Supreme People's Assembly amends the constitution, including the new 1:1.65 flag ratio.
• September 7, 2026: A state news agency photograph shows a flag identified as using the revised proportions.
• November 2026: Publication of the constitutional text brings wider attention to Article 166.

The colors stay, while their message shifts

Naenara's explanation connects the central red band to the blood of revolutionary fighters who resisted Japanese colonial rule. Japan ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945. The red star represents the tradition of that revolutionary struggle and the people's determination to complete the Juche revolution.

Juche is North Korea's official ideology, commonly explained as self reliance. In the flag's official symbolism, it connects the state's revolutionary history with its account of the country's present purpose and future.

The white circle and white bands now represent loyalty to the country's leader and the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. Earlier explanations associated white with the purity or shared identity of the Korean people. The newer wording places the party and leadership at the center of the symbol's meaning.

The blue bands carry several related meanings in North Korea's explanations: sovereignty, independence from imperialism, and the pursuit of peace, friendship and unity internationally. Sovereignty means a country's authority to govern itself.

The combination matters because North Korea has preserved a recognizable flag while changing both its proportions and the message attached to parts of it. The white elements are especially relevant to Kim's rejection of reunification: their current explanation directs attention toward loyalty within the North Korean state rather than a shared identity across the peninsula.

A national symbol with Soviet roots

North Korea introduced the flag in 1948 under its founding leader, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather. Soviet officials presented the design, which had been developed in Moscow. Before the division produced separate national flags, Koreans in both the north and south had used the Taegeukgi, the flag whose central red and blue symbol remains part of South Korea's flag today.

The flag's long shape was debated at the beginning. During parliamentary discussions in 1948, a proposal to shorten it was rejected. Kim Du Bong, then a senior figure in the North Korean assembly, opposed adopting proportions different from 1:2. A practical concern raised about the longer flag was that folding fabric could hide the star.

North Korean accounts later credited Kim Il Sung with the flag's creation, giving less attention to its Soviet origins. After the country adopted its monolithic ideological system in 1967, the proportions and placement of the white circle and red star were presented as achievements associated with him.

Changing the proportions therefore alters a detail that had been preserved for decades as part of the founding leader's legacy. Keeping the star and colors allows the government to retain that historical connection while introducing a specification associated with Kim Jong Un's rule.

Why continuity matters to Kim Jong Un

Kim Jong Un is North Korea's third hereditary leader, following his grandfather Kim Il Sung and his father Kim Jong Il. His government has sought to build an identity for his period in power while continuing to draw authority from the earlier leaders.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, described the flag revision as a way to combine those two goals.

"Changing the flag's proportions while maintaining its basic design is an attempt to preserve the legacy of previous leaders while imprinting a distinct national identity associated with the Kim Jong-un era," Lim said.

The result is a limited visual change with considerable symbolic value. Citizens still see the same star, colors and basic arrangement, but the constitution now gives those elements a different frame. Kim can put a recognizable mark on the national flag without replacing the symbol inherited from his predecessors.

Lim also connected the revision to the government's policy of treating North and South Korea as separate, hostile states. In that reading, the flag belongs to a wider effort to make Kim's political direction part of both the law and the symbols people encounter.

The anthem and constitution tell the same story

North Korea changed its national anthem in 2024 by replacing "samcholli" with "i sesang," meaning "this world." Samcholli literally means "3,000 ri," using a traditional unit of distance, and has long referred to the Korean homeland across the peninsula.

Removing that expression took a familiar reference to all Korea out of a song performed as a national symbol. North Korea also adopted a National Anthem Law in 2024, placing the anthem within a formal legal framework.

The constitutional changes follow the same political direction. Article 2 defines North Korean territory as bordering China and Russia to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south, together with territorial waters and airspace based on that land. Exact land and maritime boundaries are left unspecified.

The revised text removes provisions concerning national reunification. Its territorial article names South Korea as a neighboring country; the text does not include the descriptions "No. 1 hostile state" or "invariable principal enemy." Kim's hostile states policy is reflected through the separation of the two countries and the removal of their former shared constitutional goal.

What else the constitutional release reveals

Naenara had disabled its constitutional section in March 2024, leaving outside readers unable to consult the text there for about two years and eight months. Its return makes it possible to examine how the government has written its political changes into the country's highest law.

The removal of reunification language follows instructions Kim gave at the Supreme People's Assembly in January 2024. He called for deleting references to the "northern half" of Korea and to principles including peaceful reunification and national unity. Those expressions had treated division as a condition that should eventually end.

The newly public constitution largely matches the revision disclosed by South Korea's Ministry of Unification in May 2026. Alongside the territorial provisions, it retains authority for the president of the State Affairs Commission, Kim's position, to command nuclear forces and delegate authority to use nuclear weapons to the state nuclear command organization.

The flag amendment sits within that broader legal framework. Article 166 governs the appearance of a national symbol, while other provisions define territory and leadership powers. Publishing them together makes the state's outward image and its governing rules visible in the same document.

Patriotism moves into everyday products

North Korea has also promoted the flag through school bags, sportswear, shirts, dresses and badges. A school bag featuring the national flag was recently presented at a national clothing and footwear exhibition.

Such products bring the symbol into daily routines beyond government buildings, ceremonies and sporting events. A school bag carries it into classrooms; clothing and badges put it on the people wearing them. The official explanation of the flag gives those familiar colors a direct connection to loyalty to the party and leader.

The constitutional revision gives manufacturers and organizers a new shape to reproduce. The central image remains familiar, but its correct proportions have changed from a rectangle twice as wide as it is tall to one measuring 1:1.65.

North Korea's changes are therefore connected at several levels: the anthem's words, the constitution's definition of territory, the flag's dimensions and the meaning assigned to its colors. Each places the separate North Korean state more firmly at the center of national identity, while retaining symbols associated with its revolutionary past.

Key Points

• Article 166 changes North Korea's flag ratio from 1:2 to 1:1.65, its first proportions change since 1948.
• At the same height, the new flag is 17.5 percent narrower.
• The red star, white circle and red, white and blue bands remain.
• The constitution was amended on March 23, 2026, and the flag change drew wider attention in November.
• The revised constitution removes reunification provisions and names South Korea as the neighboring country to the south.
• The change follows a 2024 anthem revision that removed a reference to the whole Korean Peninsula.
• North Korea's current explanation links the flag's white elements to loyalty to the leader and Workers' Party.