North Korea to Switch to New Time Zone

North Korea will switch to a new time zone, putting back its clocks by 30 minutes on August 15, the country’s Supreme People’s Assembly said.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — The decision was made to commemorate the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s liberation from Japan, the North Korean News Agency reported citing the Supreme People’s Assembly document.

Currently, North Korea is in the same time zone as Japan and South Korea. Before the Japanese colonization in 1910, the entire Korean peninsula was 8.5 hours ahead of GMT, while now the time difference is 9 hours.

North Korea is not the only country that decided to create its own time zone. Back in 2007, Venezuela also decided to turn its clocks to use the daytime more effectively.