hello everyone I am Vic Salah goofer and
this is a flag news update coming from
the Korean Peninsula the Korean
Peninsula as you may know the Winter
Olympics begin this month in the city of
Pyeongchang in South Korea and the North
Korean team has been invited to
participate and this is some big flag
news on January 17th northern South
Korea announced that they were planning
to march into the parade of Nations if
they're the opening ceremony under one
common flag instead of their two
countries separate flags this is a
pretty big deal in case you haven't
heard North and South Korea have not
been the best of friends lately in
recent weeks or months or years or
decades because the Korean War
technically isn't over and North Korea
still makes a bunch of crazy scary war
threats every now and then so this is a
big deal so what is the flag they're
gonna be using both teams will be
marching into the parade of Nations
under this flag this is known as the
Korean unification flag it's got a white
background with a blue shape in the
shape of Korea this flag first made his
appearance at an international sporting
event in 1991 at the World Table Tennis
Championships and its very first Olympic
Games it was used at was in 2000 it was
also used during the 2004 Summer Games
and the 2006 Winter Games but it has not
been used at the Olympics since since
then they've been using their two
countries separate flags so this is big
the unification flag is back everyone
for 2018 Winter Games and a lot of
people are happy about this like hey
it's a nice break from all the war
talking on all the scary war talk
because the one thing they do agree on
is some day they hope that the Korean
Peninsula will be united again they
disagree on you know who should run it
but they do agree it should be United
someday but there's one country up there
that is not thrilled about this flag
idea and that is Japan what's Japan's
problem with this unification flag
what's what's the big deal
well Japan is really really upset
at that blue dot no no not that blue god
that's the island of Jeju Japan's fine
with that
the other blue dot no no not that one
that's that's the island of ghulam doh
that that's not that the other one look
closer
zoom in there you go that little blue
dot that little that thing is why Japan
does not like this flag and on February
4th lodged a protest against it
Japan is really upset about this little
blue duck why well believe it or not
that little blue speck has been the
source of enormous diplomatic conflict
between Korea and Japan for over 60
years why why well okay that little blue
dot on this map of Korea represents
these two tiny tiny tiny islands Korea
calls these two islands Dokdo and says
it belongs to Korea Japan calls these
islands takashima and says it belongs to
Japan and they're really really serious
about this it has been in a it's been a
really big strain on the two countries
relations for quite a while and it's not
over yet and Japan is really really
upset about this flag all because of
that tiny blue speck all because of that
so On February 6th at the South Korean
government stated that during the
Olympics they will not be using the tiny
little blue dot hopefully that means the
big red dot will not get too mad so
there you go if you're watching the
parade of Nations this week during the
opening ceremony of the 2018 games and
you're thinking to yourself what's that
white flag with the blue squiggly shape
on it well now you know that is the
Korean unification flag and it's making
its comeback after a long hiatus thank
you for watching everyone
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