North Korea To Set Clocks Back 30 Minutes To Its Own Time Zone

This was the time zone it used before it was colonized by Japan, according to cnn.

North Korea does some interesting things. It has put up its own calendar based on the birth of its founding leader Kim Il Sung, who was born in 1912 -- known in North Korea as Juche 1. Hence, this year is Juche 104.

On August 15, 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan, North Korea will go back by 30 minutes to "Pyongyang time" to GMT+08:30---whatever it was before Japanese colonization. Hence, the new time will put Pyongyang half an hour behind Tokyo and Seoul.

"The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land with 5 000 year-long history and culture and pursuing the unheard-of policy of obliterating the Korean nation," the Presidium said, according to wsj.

Pyongyang says that Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, fought Japan off the Korean peninsula, ruled by Japan as a colony for 35 years until 1945. It has conveniently ignored the role of the bombing of two Japanese cities to end the war.

Hence, the decision to change the time zones has been done to honour the late president, who is supposed to have "crushed the brigandish Japanese imperialists...and liberated Korea."

The South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman, Jeong Joon-hee, said on Friday: "Some difficulties are likely to come in inter-Korean exchanges, including flows to and from the Kaesong Industrial Complex." He added that it might have negative effects on inter-Korean integration.

In the past, even South Korea's time zone was set at GMT+08:30, which is the new Pyongyang time, between 1954 and 1961.