North Korea Sets Clocks Back 30 Minutes Creating Its Own Time Zone

North Korea is its own world in many ways. Now, it is getting its own time zone to match.

State news agency, KCNA, has announced that North Korea will set its clocks back by 30 minutes to "Pyongyang time" on August 15--the 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan.

That will reset the time to GMT+08:30, as it was before Japanese colonization.
"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," KCNA reported on Friday.

North Koreans already have their own calendar. Instead of counting from the birth of Christ, they count from the birth of founding leader, Kim Il Sung. Kim was born in 1912 -- known in North Korea as Juche 1, making this year Juche 104.

The new time will put Pyongyang half an hour behind Tokyo and Seoul.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman, Jeong Joon-hee told a briefing on Friday that could cause some problems.

South Korea has made similar moves in the past. Its time zone was set at GMT+08:30 -- the new Pyongyang time -- between 1954 and 1961.
Source: CNN