North Korea to set up new time zone, push clocks back 30 minutes

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said today it will establish its own time zone next week by pulling back its current standard time by 30 minutes.

Local time in North and South Korea and Japan has been the same since Japan’s rule over what was single Korea from 1910 to 1945.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that the establishment of “Pyongyang time” is aimed at rooting out the legacy of the Japanese colonial period.

It said the new time zone will take effect Aug. 15 – the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule at the end of World War II.

South Korea says it uses the same time zone as Japan because it’s more practical and conforms to international practice.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said today that the North’s action could bring minor disruption at a jointly-run industrial park at the North Korean border city of Kaesong and other inter-Korean affairs. Spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee said the North’s new time zone could also hamper efforts to narrow widening differences between the Koreas.

The two Koreas were divided into the capitalist, U.S.-backed South and the socialist, Soviet-supported North after their 1945 liberation.