North Korea Creates New Time Zone

North Korea recently announced it will set its clocks back 30 minutes at midnight on August 15th to 'Pyongyang Time' in concert with a celebration of their liberation from Japan. This is the 70th anniversary of their separation that occurred during World War II.

Pyongyang Time will be set to UTC +0830 or 30 minutes behind their previous Korean Standard Time Zone of UTC +0900. This is a rollback to the time zone North Korea recognized before Japanese takeover.

Half hour time zones are not unique to North Korea. They are utilized in India, Iran, Australia and Venezuela to name a few.