North Korea, often regarded as a world of its own by many, will soon have its own time zone to match its reclusiveness.
The country will establish its own time zone next week by setting its clocks back by 30 minutes to "Pyongyang time," according to the Detroit Free Press.
North Korea will get its own time zone starting Aug. 15, marking the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule at the end of World War II. Japan, North Korea and South Korea all have the same local time - GMT+9:00. The change will reset the time to GMT+8:30, as it was before Japanese colonization.
"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," KCNA reported on Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Such a notion isn't unprecedented for North Korea. The country's official version of history ignores the U.S.'s fight against Japan in World War II and instead credits Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, with fighting Japan off the Korean peninsula, which Tokyo governed as a colony for 35 years until 1945.
This interpretation of history is reflected in the North Korean calendar, CNN reported. Instead of counting from the birth of Christ, the country counts from the birth of Kim Il Sung. Because he was born in 1912, referred to in North Korea as Juche 1, this year is known as Juche 104 instead of 2015.
