The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag (Korean: 국기에 대한 맹세; Hanja: 國旗에 對한 盟誓, lit. '"Oath facing the national flag"') is the pledge to the national flag of South Korea. The pledge is recited at flag ceremonies immediately before the South Korean national anthem.
The current pledge was introduced on July 27, 2007.[1] A previous pledge of allegiance was used from 1972 until 2007 and was introduced by then-president Park Chung-hee.[2][3]
Unlike the current pledge which pledges allegiance to the state of South Korea, the 1972 pledge rather pledged allegiance to the "Korean nation" or "Korean ethnicity" (translated as "Korean race" by some critics[2][3][5][6][7][8]), also known as the minjok.
This version of the pledge was discontinued in July 2007, during the presidency of Roh Moo-hyun,[9] and replaced with different, non-ethnic wording. The decision was criticized by some left-wing nationalists who advocated Korean reunification of the two Koreas.[10] Similarly, until April 2011, the South Korean army's soldiers swore allegiance to the "Korean ethnicity" in their oaths of enlistment until that, too, was discontinued for similar reasons.[5]
The military has decided to omit the word 'minjok,' which refers to the Korean race, from the oath of enlistment for officers and soldiers, and replace it with 'the citizen.' The measure reflects the growing number of foreigners who gain Korean citizenship and of children from mixed marriages entering military service.
Although the change was inspired by the increase in multiethnic households, not by the drive to bolster state-patriotism per se, the left-wing media objected ...