The black trigrams have several meanings depending on the classical elements. Table below from the South Korea National Flag wikipedia page lists the various meanings:
|Each trigram (hangul: kwae) represents one of the four classical elements. Source: www.wikipedia.org|
The idea of the National Flag was first brought up during the negotiations of the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876, during this time, there was no official Korean flag to represent the country. This is re-emerged again during the United States-Korea Treaty of 1882. This time, Ma Jianzhong, a Chinese official and scholar in the late Qing Dynasty proposed the initial design of the Korean Flag with a red and black yin-yang (instead of the red and blue). On August, 1882, Park Yeong-hyo, a Korean politician, diplomat and activist during the Joseon Dynasty period became the first Korean to use the National flag internationally in Japan. By January 27, 1883, the government official recognized the use of the flag.
|Old Korean National Flag. Source: www.wikipedia.org|
The current South Korea national flag was official declared by the South Korean government on 15 October 1959.
Today, 1st of March is a special day in South Korea which marks the March 1st Movement or Samil Movement when 33 Korean nationalists and students declared their country's independence in Seoul from the Japanese Occupation. This provided a catalytic momentum for the Korean Independence Movement which eventually led to the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (April 13, 1919).
This particular Victorinox Classic has a product code of 0.6203.KR0 and was released in 2000s as part of the expanded Victorinox National Flag series collection.