Following the success of the summit between North Korea’s Leader Marshall Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in at the friendship house on the South side of the DMZ (de-militarized zone), North Korea moved their clocks forward by 30 minutes. 

What is the time-zone in North Korea?

At 23:30 local time on Friday (4th May) the country’s clocks moved forward 30 minutes to midnight, matching the time zone in South Korea. The time-zone is now GMT+9- the same as in South Korea and Japan.

Why 30 minutes?

North Korea changed to their unusual time-zone of 30 minutes backwards in 2015 to get away from being on the same time-zone as Japan. During the war, the time zone of Korea was changed under Japanese rule to match Tokyo’s.

What does this mean for our tours?

As our tours begin in China, it means that as soon as we cross over the border on the train or land at the airport if taking a flight, we operate one hour ahead. Train schedules from Dandong have been changed to arrive in Pyongyang at 6:45pm.

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There has been lots of progression and excitement surrounding North Korea and its relations with the South and America in recent months. The most recent of which being the announcement of Trump’s and Kim Jong Un’s talks being held in Singapore on the 12th June – in just a few weeks time.