Time zone difference between Koreas

By Lee Sun-ho

The North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that the country would switch to using its own time zone, effective Aug. 15, to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese imperial rule at the end of World War II. Pyongyang time saw the clocks go back 30 minutes, leaving the North 8.5 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The KNCA said ``The wicked Japanese colonial government had deprived sovereign Korea of its standard time by changing the clocks during occupation. It quoted officials as saying the decision to adopt Pyongyang time reflected, ``The unshakable faith and will of the service personnel and people on the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation to break from imperialism.”

In fact, the entire Korean Peninsula was once 8.5 hours ahead of GMT. It was adopted by Korea in 1908, and used up until 1912, two years after Japan colonized the Joseon Kingdom and the year the so-called Great Leader Kim Il-sung was born on April 15. After liberation in 1945, North Korea maintained Tokyo time, while South Korea used the old zone time from 1954 to 1961.

There is no international body that approves a country changing its time zone as countries decide for themselves, and North Korea is not the only country that has created its own unique time zone. In 2011, Samoa changed its time zone to the other side of the international dateline, losing one day, so as to make communications easier with neighboring Australia and New Zealand. Nepal moved a quarter of an hour ahead of India in 1956 to distance itself from its colonial past.

As far as my past travel experiences go, South Korea is ahead by 3.5 hours and 5.5 hours, respectively, of India and Iran. China is a vast country which shares a single Beijing time zone, but it spans far more longitudes, which has resulted to some quirky schedules.

Time zones confuse the world. The division of the world’s time into neat longitudinal sections has been a messy affair. There is now Pyongyang time to add to this. Time zones are as much about politics, international relations, ideological struggles, military reasons and rebellions as they are about, well, time.

The North’s move appears to be aimed at bolstering the leadership of young leader Kim Jong-un and his inheritably isolated, orthodox, anti-Japan and nationalistic sentiments since taking power in late 2011. His dictator father, Kim Jong-il, who ruled from the summer of 1994 until his death in 2011, stated the first year of ``Juche,” was 1912, Kim Il-sung’s birth year, which has its 104th anniversary in 2015.

For South Korea, it is more practical and conforms to international practices. The North’s decision may bring major disruption at the jointly run industrial park at Gaeseong on the North Korean border as well as other inter-Korean affairs. It could also hamper efforts to narrow the widening differences in various cooperative programs and transactions between the two Koreas. As mentioned by President Park Geun-hye on Aug. 10, the time zone switch by the North is, no doubt, running counter to the worldwide peaceful reunification drives for the Korean Peninsula, whatever pretexts the North is advocating are justified. .

In my humble opinion, the North’s decision to use its own time zone is obviously against Koreans’ desire for inter-Korean reunification. Despite the division of the time zone on the peninsula, I think the two Koreas should exert mutually beneficial ways to seek cooperation.

The writer is an outside director of Samyang Tongsang Co. in Seoul. Contact him at kexim2@unitel.co.kr.