Korea Standard Time
![]() | It has been suggested that Time in South Korea be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2015. |
Korea Standard Time (KST; Korean: 한국 표준시; Hanja: 韓國標準時; RR: Han-guk pyojunsi) is the standard time zone in South Korea and is 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00): i.e., when it is midnight (00:00) UTC, it is 9 am (09:00) Korea Standard Time. South Korea does not observe daylight saving time, but experimented with it during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.[1][2] Korea Standard Time is the same as Japan Standard Time, Indonesian Eastern Standard Time and Yakutsk Time. North Korea was also on Korea Standard Time, but in August 2015 adopted Pyongyang Standard Time, which is 30 minutes behind. According to Kim Jong-un, this was done to "rid North Korea of Japanese imperialism."[3]
History
The Korean Empire adopted a standard time of 8.5 hours ahead of UTC in 1908. In 1912, the Japanese colonial government changed this to UTC+09:00 to align with Japan Standard Time. In 1954 it was reverted to UTC+08:30 and then in 1961, it was changed to UTC+09:00 again.[4]
North Korea announced that it would revert its time zone to UTC+08:30 on 15 August 2015, which coincides with Liberation Day, and adopt the same standard time as in 1908.[5][6]
See also
References
- ^ When is daylight saving time worldwide?
- ^ "Daylight saving time dates for South Korea – Seoul between 1980 and 1989".
- ^ "North Korea to introduce new timezone this month". BNO News. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
- ^ 標準時の変更を 与党議員が発議=韓国
- ^ "North Korea's new time zone to break from 'imperialism'". BBC News. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
- ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/07/us-northkorea-time-idUSKCN0QC04P20150807