North-Korea reclaims back their historical standard time

[bauci.livejournal.com]

North Korea is to switch to a new time zone to mark its liberation from the Japanese at the end of World War Two, says state media.
North Korea is currently in the same time zone as South Korea and Japan, which are nine hours ahead of GMT. But Pyongyang Time will see the clocks put back by 30 minutes on 15 August. State news agency KCNA said "wicked Japanese imperialists" had "deprived Korea of even its standard time" by changing the clocks during occupation. North Korea chose 15 August as it was the date that former leader Kim Il-sung, grandfather of current president Kim Jong-un, "crushed the brigandish Japanese imperialists".


The entire Korean peninsula - then one country - was 8.5 hours ahead of GMT until Japan colonised it in 1910.
KCNA quoted officials as saying the decision to adopt Pyongyang Time reflected "the unshakeable faith and will of the service personnel and people on the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation".

South Korea said the move could cause some short-term inconvenience at the Kaesong industrial plant in North Korea, jointly run by the two Koreas. "And in the longer term, there may be some fallout for efforts to unify standards and reduce differences between the two sides," Unification Ministry official Jeong Joon-Hee said.

There is no international body that approves a country's change of time zone as countries decide for themselves. In 2011, Samoa changed its time zone to the other side of the international dateline, losing one day, so as to make communication easier with neighbours Australia and New Zealand.

And North Korea is not the only country that has created its own unique time zone. In 2007, Venezuela decided to turn its clocks back by half an hour as President Hugo Chavez wanted to have a "more fair distribution of the sunrise" to residents. Venezuela is now the only country with a time zone 4.5 hours behind GMT.

Source: BBC

What do you think, Omona, should South-Korea follow?

Comments

[pepsi-twist9.livejournal.com]

Hmm, there are a lot of factors that could go into making a decision. Of course how the day operates at the moment such as when sunrise occurs, etc. is a factor as well as political issues.

[mymanhas2jobs.livejournal.com]

30 minutes??? not an hour? that bothers me way too much

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

you'd love Nepal's UTC+5:45 then

[ultimaaa.livejournal.com]

Could be weirder, I guess. I mean, here in Canada HALF of one of our provinces is in a completely separate time zone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_Time_Zone), so...

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

Half an hour seems like way too much trouble for what it's worth. I guess it's not as weird as China where the entire country is on the same time zone.

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

I didn't know this.
That's cruel that the whole country is on one time zone wtf.

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

It is officially but there are also unofficial time zones, especially the way western parts of the country, that they function on during day to day life.

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

oh ok ty

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

for the most part it just means that "9am" means something different to people in the west than the east, it's not like school starts at the time on the clock everywhere

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

oh ok ty.

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

I think 30 minutes is really weird. They should just do it an hour.
I think SK should do it if they really feel like they want to.

[huanyia.livejournal.com]

idk what to think, but if it was like that before korea was colonized, i think it should be acceptable. 30 minutes really isn't much of a different, but ok...

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

countries with DST change time zones by an hour twice a year, a permanent shift of half an hour really isn't that big a deal

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

this

Daylight Savings Time can kiss my arse. Hate it.

[itsanonyx.livejournal.com]

+1

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

it's a really, really bad thing that helps absolutely no one and basically has only negative effects

[chibiyunie.livejournal.com]

My country does this as well and I never really understand what the fuss is about? It literally changes at night from Saturday to Sunday and it is only an hour yet I hear people complain about how it throws them off etcetera when most of the people are probably sleeping when it happens and don't notice a thing.

I never once woke up and felt off because time changed an hour.

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

http://www.ibtimes.com/daylight-saving-time-why-monday-after-springing-forward-deadly-day-1840534
https://www.gwern.net/docs/melatonin/1996-coren.pdf

there's ~25% more heart attacks the monday after the shift than a typical monday, and a measurable increase in accidental workplace deaths. It might not make a difference between 8 and 7 hours of sleep, but for people that already don't get enough it makes things even worse