Seoul: North Korea has decided to establish its own time zone from the coming week, by pulling back by 30 minutes from its current standard time. It will take effect August 15, marking the 70th anniversary of Korean liberation from Japanese rule at the conclusion of the World War II.
Stating the establishment of 'Pyongyang Time' will root out Japan's legacy, the KCNA dispatch said, “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.”
Apparently, bygones are NOT bygones for the Koreans as many, especially the elderly, on both sides of the border still harbour deep resentment against Japan over its colonial occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to fight as front-line soldiers, work in slave conditions or serve as prostitutes in brothels operated by the Japanese military during the war.
However, Seoul's Unification Ministry said the North'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. Spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee said the North's new time zone could also hamper ongoing efforts to clean widening differences between the sides of the region.
The time zone North Korea plans to use was what a single Korea adopted in 1908, though the peninsula came under the same Japanese zone in 1912, two years after Tokyo's colonial occupation began. After liberation, North Korea has maintained the current time zone, while South Korea had briefly used the old zone from 1954 to 1961.
