North Korea has revised its national flag dimensions for the first time since the regime’s establishment in 1948, shifting the height-to-width ratio from 1:2 to 1:1.65.
The constitutional amendment was formally approved on March 23, 2026, during the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly, according to Yonhap News Agency. The updated text appeared publicly when Pyongyang’s external propaganda website, Naenara, published the revised basic law.
Article 166 of the updated constitution establishes the 1:1.65 aspect ratio, shortening the flag’s width while preserving its traditional components. The design maintains a broad central red stripe, narrow white stripes, outer blue stripes, and a red five-pointed star inside a white circle. Independent reporting from NK News said that the white stripes have been widened to roughly a third of the width of the blue stripes.
State media explanations state that the red field represents the blood of anti-Japanese fighters from the 1910–45 colonial period. The white circle and stripes symbolize loyalty to the leadership and the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, while the blue stripes signify sovereignty, peace, and global friendship.
“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,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, as reported by The Korea Herald.
Following Kim’s declaration at a late 2023 party meeting that the two Koreas constitute separate and hostile states, the updated constitution had remained offline since March 2024.
Analysts point out that while South Korean and United Nations Command forces have long utilized the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea as a vital operational boundary, Pyongyang continues to contest its legitimacy. The NLL developed after the 1953 armistice. North Korea’s decision to identify South Korea as its southern neighbor does not remove those distinctions.
The constitutional revision accompanies sweeping changes to inter-Korean policy and state structure. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, Article 2 defines North Korean territory as land bordering China and Russia to the north and South Korea to the south, explicitly designating Seoul as a separate neighboring country rather than a partner in a divided nation.
At a Supreme People’s Assembly meeting in January 2024, Kim ordered the removal of constitutional references to the “northern half” of Korea and the principles of “independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity.”
References to peaceful reunification and national unity have been purged from the text, codifying the “two hostile states” doctrine declared by leader Kim Jong Un in late 2023. The newly printed text closely mirrors the updated foundational document that South Korea’s Ministry of Unification secured and made public in May.
Edward Howell, who authored “A New Axis of Disturbance: North Korea, Russia, China, and Iran,” remarked to Newsweek on Thursday that the constitutional overhaul confirms a three-year-old reality: Pyongyang has abandoned any intention of maintaining ties with Seoul. Howell noted how soon after South Korea’s progressive, left-leaning president took office, Kim’s powerful sister swiftly denounced Seoul’s maneuvers for reconciliation as appeasement offensives.
“Pyongyang wants to send a clear signal to Seoul that North Korea does not care for the current South Korean government’s desires to reconcile ties,” said Howell, a lecturer and research fellow at the University of Oxford, in an analysis cited by Newsweek.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spoke during a Constitution Day ceremony at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on December 27, 2025, in a photo distributed by the state-run Korean Central Television on December 28, 2025.
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