This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-time-zone.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
North Korea, Now in Year 104, Will Set Its Clocks Back 30 Minutes North Korea to Move 30 Minutes Backward to Create Its Own Time Zone
(about 5 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, which was already out of sync with much of the world, announced on Friday that it would take that a step further. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, a hermetic country stuck in the Cold War and obsessed with its long-dead founder, now wants to turn back time.
The isolated, authoritarian country said it would create its own time zone — “Pyongyang time” — and set its clocks 30 minutes behind those of South Korea and Japan. By a half-hour.
The change is to go into effect on Aug. 15, the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, which liberated a then-unified Korea from decades of Japanese colonial rule. Japan imposed the time zone that both Koreas currently use, and the statement from North Korea — whose anti-Japanese language often rivals its anti-American language in ferocity — said it was making the change to rid itself of a vestige of colonial domination. The government announced on Friday that it would create its own time zone — “Pyongyang time” — and set its clocks 30 minutes behind those of South Korea and Japan. The change is set for Aug. 15, the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, which freed the Korean Peninsula from Japanese rule.
The current time on the peninsula — nine hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time — was set by Japan. North Korean public pronouncements can be as virulently anti-Japanese as they are anti-American, so it was natural that the clock change would be billed as throwing off a hated vestige of colonial domination.
“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Friday.“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Friday.
South Korea has its own issues rooted in history with Japan, but the time is not one of them. Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry of the South, noted that following Pyongyang’s lead would entail huge costs and confusion in the finance and airline industries in South Korea, whose economy, unlike the North’s, is globalized. South Korea has its own historical grudges with Japan, but the time of day is not one of them. Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry in the South, said that following Pyongyang’s lead now would be confusing and expensive for a country that, unlike the North, is thoroughly integrated with the global economy.
Mr. Jeong, whose ministry deals with issues surrounding a potential unification of the Koreas, expected the North’s time change to create only minor communication problems, notably at the inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where South Korean managers oversee North Korean workers. But he said it could become a bigger problem in the future if the countries grow closer. Mr. Jeong said the time change in the North would probably create only minor communication problems, notably at the inter-Korean industrial park in Kaesong, where South Korean managers oversee North Korean workers. But down the road, he said, “this will disrupt our efforts to integrate the South and the North and restore our homogeneity.”
“In the long term, this will disrupt our efforts to integrate the South and the North and restore our homogeneity,” Mr. Jeong said. Japan is widely resented on both sides of the border, but the North enshrines its hostility toward Japanese and other foreign “imperialists” in its constitution and puts the resentment at the core of the country’s ruling philosophy of “juche,” or self-reliance. The ritually revered founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, fought as a guerrilla against the Japanese before independence.
Anti-Japanese resentment runs deep in the Koreas, but the North enshrines hostility toward Japanese and other foreign “imperialists” in its Constitution, and it forms the core of the country’s ruling philosophy of “juche,” or self-reliance. North Korea traces its birth as an independent nation to its founder, Kim Il-sung, who like other Korean peasants engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. Mr. Kim died in 1994, and his grandson Kim Jong-un runs the country now, doing whatever he can to highlight his ancestry, even imitating his grandfather’s hairstyle and the way he held his cigarettes. His grandfather’s rhetorical themes are invoked to justify policies like maintaining an enormous military and developing nuclear weapons.
Mr. Kim, who is a godlike figure among North Koreans, is the grandfather of Kim Jong-un, the current leader. Since taking power in 2011, Mr. Kim has been striving to highlight his ties to his grandfather, copying such details as his hairstyle and the way he held his cigarettes. He has also emphasized his grandfather’s themes of self-reliance and dignity, which the government has cited as justification for its development of nuclear weapons. Chang Yong-seok, a North Korea expert at Seoul National University, saw the clock change in the same vein.
Chang Yong-seok, a North Korea expert at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, saw the North’s time change as a reiteration of those themes for domestic consumption.
“With the new time zone, Kim Jong-un is reasserting his code words of self-reliance and national dignity to his people,” Mr. Chang said. “Whatever difficulties and inconveniences the new time zone may cause are nothing to his government, compared with its propaganda value at home.”“With the new time zone, Kim Jong-un is reasserting his code words of self-reliance and national dignity to his people,” Mr. Chang said. “Whatever difficulties and inconveniences the new time zone may cause are nothing to his government, compared with its propaganda value at home.”
The Japanese government had no response to the North’s announcement, although Japanese news media reported the move widely, including Pyongyang’s accusation that Japan “stole Korea’s time.” Some Internet users offered amused criticism. “Why did they wait 70 years?” several Twitter users asked. The Japanese government offered no response to the North’s announcement, but the Japanese news media pounced on the news, including Pyongyang’s accusation that Japan “stole Korea’s time.” Some Internet users offered amused criticism. “Why did they wait 70 years?” several asked on Twitter.
The North’s new time zone is an old one — Korea used it briefly before it was annexed by Japan in 1910, during the period when countries around the world first began establishing standard time zones. South Korea reverted to it in 1954, but returned to the present one — the same as Tokyo’s, nine hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time — in 1961. The North’s new time zone is actually an old one. Korea briefly set its clocks that way before it was annexed by Japan in 1910, around the time when countries the world over were establishing standard time zones. South Korea went back to it in 1954, then re-adopted the present setting — the same as Tokyo’s — in 1961.
One reason it has been on the same time as Tokyo for decades, according to South Korean officials, is that it was considered important that American troops in Japan and South Korea be on the same clock, should war break out. South Korean officials said one reason was that American troops stationed in Japan and South Korea would be using the same time if war broke out.
Wang Sheng, a professor of international politics at Jilin University in China who focuses on the Korean Peninsula, was caught off guard by the news. “I genuinely don’t know why they decided to do this,” he said. Wang Sheng, a professor of international politics at Jilin University in China who focuses on the Korean Peninsula, was surprised by the news. “I genuinely don’t know why they decided to do this,” he said.
Mr. Wang said the change was unlikely to prove disruptive to what little international trade the North engages in. He also noted that the change would put the North’s clocks just half an hour ahead of China’s, instead of an hour. “Looks like North Korea is getting closer to China,” he said. Mr. Wang said he did not think the shift would disrupt what little international trade the North has. And he noted that it would put the country’s clocks just a half-hour ahead of China’s, instead of an hour. “Looks like North Korea is getting closer to China,” he said.
Mr. Chang, of Seoul National University, said the North’s time change was “another sign that the Koreas are drifting apart into two different countries.” Since their split, the two halves of Korea have drifted apart in many smaller ways. For example, North Korean defectors are often baffled by the South Korean habit of freely adopting English words like “shopping” and “ice cream,” which are unknown in the North because the government there resists the “language of American imperialists” and coins purely Korean terms for such imported concepts.
After seven decades of being separated by a tightly sealed border, South and North Koreans have found their shared language being cleaved in two, so much so that when North Korean defectors arrive here, they are sometimes at a loss to understand what people are saying. Since 1997, North Korea has used a different calendar, counting its years from when Kim Il-sung was born. So while it is 2015 in the rest of the world, in the North, this is the year 104.
South Koreans have freely adopted English words like “shopping” and “ice cream,” for instance, while the North has purged itself of the “language of American imperialists” and coined purely Korean terms for such imported concepts.
For years, North Korea has even been on a different calendar from the South and the rest of the world. In 1997, it adopted a “juche” calendar based on the year Kim Il-sung was born, 1912. According to official documents, and much of the North’s population, this is the year 104.