North Korea unifies its time zone with South Korea
  • 6 years ago
North Korea moved its clocks forward by 30 minutes at exactly 11:30PM last night,... announcing that Pyongyang time is readjusted to match that of Seoul.
The North's state-run media described it as the first practical step of unifying different things between the two Koreas.
Oh Jung-hee reports.
"Pyongyang time" is no more.
North Korea moved the country's time zone forward by 30 minutes at 11:30 PM on May 4th.
State-run radio and the regime's websites notified citizens of the re-set time,... by naturally announcing that it was midnight... when it would have been 11:30PM under previous North Korean time.
And a little past midnight,... the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported... (quote)"re-set Pyongyang time begins."
It wrote that as of 11:30PM May 4th, Pyongyang is moving its clock forward by 30 minutes... to unify the standard times of South and North Korea.
It described the move as the first practical step after the inter-Korean summit... to speed up the process of integrating things that have been separated between the two Koreas.


"I think unifying the time zone is a meaningful first step to successfully implement the historic Panmunjom Declaration."

North Korean time was pushed 30 minutes behind South Korean time in August 2015.
At the time, North Korea said it was to clear away vestiges of Japanese colonialism... as the two Koreas shared the same time zone with Japan.
But Kim Jong-un decided to change the time back during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
He's reported to have told President Moon that it was heartbreaking to see two different clocks at the Peace House,... one showing South Korean time and the other showing North Korean time.
The Seoul government sees this as a sign of Kim's strong will to improve inter-Korean relations.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.
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