The establishment of ‘Pyongyang time’ is meant to root out the legacy of the Japanese colonial period, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency explained. It said the new time zone will take effect August 15, to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule at the end of World War II.
‘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,’ the KCNA dispatch said.
The North’s move appears to be aimed at bolstering the leadership of young leader Kim Jong Un with anti-Japan, nationalistic sentiments, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
Many Koreans, especially the elderly, on both sides of the border still hold a deep resentment against Japan over its colonial occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to fight as front-line soldiers, work in slave-labour conditions or serve as prostitutes in brothels operated by the Japanese military during the war.
South Korea says it uses the same time zone as Japan because it’s more practical and conforms to international practice, so the new time zone could also hamper efforts to narrow widening differences between the Koreas.
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