On 15 August, MINURSO raised the South Korean national flag at the Mission HQ in Laayoune to mark the country’s Independence Day.
Since joining the UN in 1991, the Republic of Korea has made significant contributions to the organization through peacekeeping operations, development assistance and the promotion of human rights. In December 2021, South Korea hosted in its capital, the Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial at which 57 member states and two international organizations expressed their collective commitment to UN Peacekeeping. In the center of the Ministerial stood the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative and specifically the implementation strategy known as A4P.
Currently, more than 500 South Korean peacekeepers serve in six peace operations worldwide. In MINURSO, three military observers are deployed at the Mission HQ and the Team Sites .
The white on the national flag is a traditional color in Korean culture and it stands for peace and purity. The circle in the flag's center symbolizes balance in the world: the red half represents the sky, and the blue half the land. Together, the trigrams embody movement and harmony as fundamental principles.