North Korea Dumping Current Time Zone To Create It's Own, 30Min Behind Japan Standard Time

North Korea’s state media is reporting that on Aug. 15 the country will abandon the time zone it shares with Japan and South Korea and create its own.



North Koreans who already have their own calendar Instead of counting from the birth of Christ, they count from the birth of founding leader, Kim Il Sung who was born in 1912 will on August 15 (the 70th anniversary of liberation) set back by half an hour to GMT+8:30, the time zone it used before it was colonized by Japan.

Pyongyang Standard Time, as it were, will be 12 and a half hours ahead of the Eastern United States 30 minutes behind Japan Standard Time, which both Koreas have used since Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula in 1910.

“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such un-pardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land,” said KCNA, North Korea’s state mouthpiece.

The decision serves to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Korea’s independence, which enabled the political rise of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founding father and grandfather to Kim Jong Un, the country’s third and current supreme leader. South Korea briefly returned to its precolonial time zone in 1954 before embracing Japan’s standard in 1961, citing diplomatic benefits.