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North Korea Changes Time Zone to Match South Korea's

posted by mrpg on Saturday May 05 2018, @08:02PM   
from the if-they-use-dst-it'd-be-an-act-of-war dept.

takyon writes:

North Korea has switched from the UTC+08:30 offset, which it has used since 2015, back to UTC+09:00 (Korea Standard Time), matching South Korea in a "first practical step" towards reunification:

North Korea has changed [its] time zone to match the South after last week's inter-Korean summit, according to state media. At 23:30 local time (15:00 GMT) on Friday the country's clocks moved forward 30 minutes to midnight. The reset is "the first practical step" to speed up Korean unification, the official KCNA news agency said.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump says he has a date for his meeting with the North's leader, Kim Jong-Un. "We now have a date and we have a location, we'll be announcing it soon," Mr Trump told US journalists outside the White House on Friday, adding that he was expecting "very, very good things" to come out it. Mr Trump will host South Korea's president Moon Jae-in at the White House on 22 May to discuss the upcoming meeting.

Related: Massachusetts Commission Considering a Potential Move to the Atlantic Time Zone
President Trump Tweets about Nuclear Talks with North Korea
U.S. and North Korean Representatives Holding Secret Talks to Plan for Summit
Kim Jong-un Crosses Into South Korea for Summit
South Korea to Remove Loudspeakers at Border

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Original Submission

• Re:I don't want to be a pessimist (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Saturday May 05 2018, @10:08PM

  by zocalo (302) on Saturday May 05 2018, @10:08PM (#676173)

  The DPRK's usual modus operandi is to act contrite, make some small concesssions, and offer a few major promises to come later in return for easing of sanctions, etc. then, once it gets what it wants, reneges on the major promises and often rolls back some of the concessions as well. So far all the DPRK has really done is make those small concessions, so until there's one of those major promises actually delivered on in a non-reversible way I'm going to remain skeptical that this time is going to be any different.
  
  That said, with the literal collapse of their nuclear test facility and even the DPRK's "allies" doing more to enforce the UN's sanctions, I am hopeful that perhaps they actually are up against a financial wall this time and have realised that they *really* need to come to the table and rethink their Juche approach, at least a little. For all Trump's rhetoric and hawks like Bolton in his inner circle, I doubt that the DPRK would really think that the US would initiate a war on the peninsula if they were to just tone it down a little, so unless Pompeo made some pretty significant promises during his Easter visit, I can't really see any other reason they'd suddenly start playing nice. Even if it all goes well, I doubt there's going to a reunification any time soon though; the issue of what happens to Kim and the burden it would place on South Korea making German reunification look cheap, not to mention finding an approach that the Chinese and US will be both happy with, seem like they'll scupper that.

  --
  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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