The hermit kingdom of North Korea has been frequently accused of turning back the clock on human rights, economic development, and diplomacy. But this time, the world’s most impenetrable nation took the expression to a whole new and literal level: it is moving the clock back in the country by half an hour.
The establishment of “Pyongyang time” – as it is apparently going to be called – is meant to root out the legacy of the Japanese colonial period, according to the country’s official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). 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. Since Japan colonized the country in 1910, its clocks have been set to 9 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the same as Japan and South Korea. Pyongyong’s new time zone, 8:30 ahead of GMT, is a reversion to its pre-colonial past.
“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 KCNA press release stated.
The time zone that North Korea is adopting now had been used in Korea for four years from 1908. It puts the self-described Democratic People’s Republic of Korea among the small group of nations – most notably Burma and Iran – that use a time-zone with half-hour increments from GMT.
The South Korean Unification Ministry in Seoul said on Friday that its neighboring country’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. Jeong Joon-Hee, the ministry spokesman, noted that the North’s new time zone could also hamper efforts to narrow widening differences between the Koreas.
South Korea also re-established the 1908 time zone for seven years from 1954, but since 1961 has used the same time as Japan, saying it is more practical and reflects international norms.
The North’s move appeared to be aimed at bolstering the leadership of Kim Jong-un with anti-Japan, nationalistic sentiments, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.