Editing Flag of North Korea (section)

==== Pak Il's account ====
Pak Il, a Soviet-Korean interpreter for the [[25th Army (Soviet Union)|Soviet 25th Army]], gave a different account of the flag's creation in two interviews, one to the Russian magazine ''Sovershenno Sekretno'' in 1992 and another to the South Korean newspaper ''[[The Dong-A Ilbo]]'' in 1993. According to Pak, the Soviets were responsible for proposing and designing the flag. In 1947, Soviet major general [[Nikolai Georgiyevich Lebedev]] summoned Kim Tu-bong to discuss whether the ''taegukgi'' should be retained by a newly-founded North Korea. Kim Tu-bong was in favour of keeping the ''taegukgi'' and attempted to explain to Lebedev the flag's significance within [[East Asian philosophy]]. Lebedev dismissed Kim Tu-bong's lecture as nonsense and superstition. A few months later, the Soviets sent a Russian-language document outlining their design to the 7th Department of the 25th Army. Pak was asked to translate it to Korean, and it eventually became the flag of North Korea.{{sfn|Tertitskiy|2014}}{{sfn|Tertitskiy|2016|pp=269–270}} Pak's account of the flag's creation was corroborated by fellow Soviet-Korean [[Chŏng Sangjin]], who held prominent positions in the North Korean culture and propaganda ministry.{{sfn|Pak|1993}}