Joint Team Lacks Standard Flag, Song

Although for the first time ever, the two Koreas have agreed to form a single team for the 2006 Doha Asian Games and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, some point out that the government still hasn’t prepared a specific measure regarding a flag and a song the single team will use.

South Korea and North Korea will have a meeting to discuss the formation of a single team in Gaesong on December 7.

Since the World Table Tennis Championship in Chiba, Japan in 1991, the two Koreas has been using the “Hanbando Flag,” a flag on which a blue Korean Peninsula is painted on a white ground, and the “Arirang” song when they participate in an athletic match as a single team.

However, it was reported that the two Koreas have made the Hanbando Flag in different shapes each time they had to use it, without any fixed standard.

The above matter was discovered after the Torino Organising Committee of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games (TOROC), which will be held in February next year, asked the Korean Olympic Committee for a standard of making Hanbando Flag.

Dong-A Ilbo confirmed that the Hanbando Flag the two Koreas have used took various forms, such as one in which only the Korean peninsula and Jeju Island were painted, and another that contained Ulleungdo and Dokdo as well as the Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island.

An official from the Ministry of Unification said, “It is true that the two Koreas have conventionally made the Hanbando Flag while having only a broader frame of a white ground and blue Korean Peninsula,” and added that the two sides should discuss setting standards for the flag, including the ratio of its width, height, and size, soon.

Hwan Soo Zang Kwawg-Pyo Lee zangpabo@donga.com kplee@donga.com