DPRK to turn clocks back 30 minutes
CCTV.com08-07-2015 17:25 BJT
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will move its
clocks back 30 minutes to create a new "Pyongyang Time" -- breaking from
a standard imposed by Japanese imperialists more than a century ago.
The change will put the standard time in the DPRK at GMT plus 8 hours and 30 minutes, which is 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan. The DPRK said the time change would come into effect from August 15, which marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japan's decades of colonial rule.
However, South Korea has voiced its concerns after Pyongyang's announcement. The South Korean Unification Ministry said a different time zone between the North and South posed a number of possible challenges, including for operations at the jointly-run Kaesong industrial complex that lies just inside North side.
"There will be a 30 minute time difference between the South and the North. It could bring minor disruptions to inter-Korean exchanges, including entry to the Kaesong Industrial Complex. In the long term, it could hamper efforts for inter-Korea integration, standards integration and in narrowing differences between the Koreas."
"Changing the time zone generates a lot of incidental and additional costs including monetary issues and aviation issues. Not only that, considering various opportunity costs, I believe that there will be some amount of loss," said Jeong Joon-Hee, spokesman of South Korea Unification Ministry.
The change will put the standard time in the DPRK at GMT plus 8 hours and 30 minutes, which is 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan. The DPRK said the time change would come into effect from August 15, which marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japan's decades of colonial rule.
However, South Korea has voiced its concerns after Pyongyang's announcement. The South Korean Unification Ministry said a different time zone between the North and South posed a number of possible challenges, including for operations at the jointly-run Kaesong industrial complex that lies just inside North side.
"There will be a 30 minute time difference between the South and the North. It could bring minor disruptions to inter-Korean exchanges, including entry to the Kaesong Industrial Complex. In the long term, it could hamper efforts for inter-Korea integration, standards integration and in narrowing differences between the Koreas."
"Changing the time zone generates a lot of incidental and additional costs including monetary issues and aviation issues. Not only that, considering various opportunity costs, I believe that there will be some amount of loss," said Jeong Joon-Hee, spokesman of South Korea Unification Ministry.
No comments:
Post a Comment