North Korea Goes Full North Korea, Invents Own Time Zone
Now running on Pyongyang Time
The hermit kingdom is having nothing of your imperialist time constructs, world.
North Korea is king of melding the heartbreaking and the bizarre, and today, they surpassed themselves on the “bizarre” end. In a fit of nationalistic (and militantly anti-Japanese) spirits, the DPRK has created its very own time zone.
Yes, really; and they specifically chose today to do it, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Japan surrendering and thus bringing World War II to a close.
Via Time”
Pyongyang Standard Time, as it were, will be 12 and a half hours ahead of the Eastern United States — 30 minutes behind Japan Standard Time, which both Koreas have used since Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula in 1910.
“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land,” said KCNA, North Korea’s state mouthpiece.
Kim Jong Un isn’t the first despot to create his own time zone. Hugo Chavez changed Venezuela’s time zone by half an hour in 2007, in order to more equally distribute daylight throughout the country.
Yes, really.
It’s forever Kim Jong O’Clock in North Korea—not that that makes much difference to the people trapped there.
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Comments
It’s always a cold, hard, hungry midnight.
North Korean Midnight hour better than other country’s time zones. North Korean Midnight hour go 24 hours………
You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of blind and deaf, but of broken mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imaginary food. Next stop, the NoKo Zone!
It’s called “Obama Time!”
oh….you said dictatorship North Korea……
Check your watch, Rodman.
According to Times of Israel, NK has gone back to the original time Korea had before the Japanese took over in 1912. Apparently South Korea changed its time back in 1954 but changed it again in 1961,
http://www.timesofisrael.com/n-korea-creates-its-own-time-zone-because/
I couldn’t find any songs celebrating the event, so I hope this will do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhdKgrjjlaI
As the French revolutionaries did so many generations ago, maybe North Korea will create its own calendar to reflect its revolutionary ardor and devotion to the Kim dynasty.
This isn’t so much out of line with the usual – it is on the half hour – so if Kim Jong Un wanted to make it exact astronomical Korean, or maybe Pyongyang, time, he backtracked.
Iran, (UTC+3:30) Afghanistan (4:30), In5dia (5:30) and Burma/Myanmar (6:30) are also on the half hour. Nepal is at UTC 5:45. The middle of Australia, both north to south, is at UTC+9:30.
North Korea follows the lead of Venezuela in shifting to the half hour. Venezuela is now a half an hour ahead of Eastern time. (Dictators and dictatorial systems copy each other)
By the way, Newfoundland is 1 and 1/2 hours later than eastern time.
I don’t know how any of these places handle daylight savings time.
What’s difficult about daylight saving? Those places that have it handle it exactly the same way as everywhere else. Why wouldn’t they? What’s special about being an exact number of hours off GMT?
South Australia has Summer Time, so in the summer it is at GMT+10:30. The Northern Territory does not have Summer Time, so it’s always at GMT+9:30.
Yet French controlled St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands on Newfoundland’s south coast are two hours ahead of Eastern Time and one hour ahead of Atlantic Time found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/pmst
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/
You NEVER go full North Korea.
Which tyrant was in charge of St. Johns Newfoundland?
There’s nothing strange about North Korea determining its own time zone. Every government does that. Where do you think time zones come from? There’s no “world time zone authority”. Every national government determines what time it will observe, except (e.g. in the USA) where it’s determined by each state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHfB63ln1Ig
My God, they’ve got nukes AND they can control time. We’re doomed.
They could go back in time and win the Korean War, or go back further and successfully invade Japan, kamikaze or no kamikaze!
Well, maybe the time change will help NORK’s tourist industry. Many people want to get a glimpse of the over-stuffed Dear Leader, the famished millions, the military parades ad infinitum and the non-light-polluted nights.
Right now Dennis Rodman is the only tourist I am aware of. It is sad that a tattoo of our culture is the only visitor to NORK, and oh, perhaps, Jimmy Carter, Mr. Peanut, too.
And, nuclear inspectors could pay a visit during the new hours! Nah.