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North Korea has changed its time zone, turning clocks back by 30 minutes, to mark its liberation from the Japanese at the end of WW2.

Bells rang out in the capital Pyongyang at midnight on August 14 as the new time zone came into effect.

North Korea announced the move earlier this week, surprising South Korea whose president, Park Geun-hye, warned it ran counter to efforts to foster co-operation.

The communist country had been nine hours ahead of GMT – like South Korea and Japan.

Before being colonized by Japan in 1910, the entire Korean peninsula – then one country – was 8.5 hours ahead of GMT.North Korea switches to new time zone

Jong Sok, chief astronomer at the Pyongyang Observatory, said changing time zones made a lot of sense – and was appropriate as the country marked 70 years since it was liberated from Japanese rule.

“With the time standard that we have used up until now, the time when the sun is at its highest position is not correctly noon,” Jong Sok told the Associated Press.

“I think it is the lawful right of a sovereign state that our republic – to mark the 70th anniversary of our liberation and the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japanese imperialism – has announced our time as Pyongyang Time, the same as our ancestors used and which was robbed from us by the Japanese imperialists.”

State news agency KCNA said earlier this week “wicked Japanese imperialists” had “deprived Korea of even its standard time” by changing the clocks during the occupation.

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye said on Monday Pyongyang’s “unilateral” decision, taken without any consultation with Seoul, was “highly regrettable” and threatened a “further deepening of disparity between the two Koreas”.

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North Korea has created its own time zone to mark its liberation from the Japanese at the end of World War Two, says state media.

The communist country is currently in the same time zone as South Korea and Japan, which are nine hours ahead of GMT.

Now, Pyongyang Time will see the clocks put back by 30 minutes on August 15.

According to North Korea’s state news agency KCNA, “wicked Japanese imperialists” had “deprived Korea of even its standard time” by changing the clocks during occupation.North Korea new time zone

The entire Korean peninsula – then one country – was 8.5 hours ahead of GMT until Japan colonized it in 1910.

KCNA quoted officials as saying the decision to adopt Pyongyang Time reflected “the unshakeable faith and will of the service personnel and people on the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation”.

South Korea said the move could cause some short-term inconvenience at the Kaesong industrial plant in North Korea, jointly run by the two Koreas.

“And in the longer term, there may be some fallout for efforts to unify standards and reduce differences between the two sides,” Unification Ministry official Jeong Joon-Hee said.

There is no international body that approves a country’s change of time zone as countries decide for themselves.

In 2011, Samoa changed its time zone to the other side of the international dateline, losing one day, so as to make communication easier with neighbors Australia and New Zealand.

North Korea is not the only country that has created its own unique time zone.

In 2007, Venezuela decided to turn its clocks back by half an hour as President Hugo Chavez wanted to have a “more fair distribution of the sunrise” to residents.

Venezuela is now the only country with a time zone 4.5 hours behind GMT.

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Spain is to consider changing time zones by an hour after a report said this would improve eating, sleeping and working habits.

The document by a parliamentary commission said that “Spain for more than 71 years has not been in the correct time zone”.

In 1942, the Spanish dictator General Franco moved Spain onto Central European Time to follow Nazi Germany.

Spain is to consider changing time zones by an hour after a report said this would improve eating, sleeping and working habits

Spain is to consider changing time zones by an hour after a report said this would improve eating, sleeping and working habits

The report says Spain should be in the same time zone as the UK and Portugal.

Spain – on the western edge of Europe – is currently one hour ahead of GMT during the winter and two hours ahead in the summer.

“We sleep almost an hour less than the World Health Organization recommends,” the commission said.

“All this has a negative effect on productivity, absenteeism, stress, accidents and school drop-out rates.”

It said that following the “wrong clock” explained why Spaniards tended to eat, leave work and go to bed later than their European neighbors.

“Our timetable is determined more by the sun than by the clock. We eat at one o’clock in the afternoon and dine at eight, according to the sun, but the clock says it is three o’clock and 10 o’clock,” the text said.

It added that jumping back an hour would bring Spain “into line with Europe in many respects in which we currently differ”.

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