North Korea Goes Full North Korea, Invents Own Time Zone

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.

Tags: North Korea

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