Asia · Eastern Asia · Sovereign state
Current time in North Korea
A single time zone at UTC+09:00.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
About North Korea's time
A single time zone.
North Korea uses a single time zone at UTC+09:00, the same as South Korea and Japan. From August 2015 to May 2018 it used its own UTC+08:30 offset, then switched back.
Major cities
Cities of North Korea.
History
How North Korea keeps time.
North Korea has historically followed Korea Standard Time (UTC+09:00), the same offset used by South Korea today. Under Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), the entire Korean Peninsula adopted Tokyo Standard Time at UTC+09:00. After liberation in 1945, both Korean states continued using UTC+09:00, and when South Korea used UTC+08:30 from 1954 to 1961, North Korea remained on UTC+09:00.
The most significant change came on August 15, 2015, when North Korea introduced Pyongyang Time at UTC+08:30, moving clocks back by 30 minutes. State media framed the change as undoing a time imposed under Japanese colonial rule. On May 5, 2018, North Korea moved its clocks forward 30 minutes to rejoin UTC+09:00, in step with South Korea.
Did you know?
Things about North Korea's time.
North Korea's brief adoption of Pyongyang Time at UTC+08:30 (August 2015 – May 2018) created a unique situation on the Korean Peninsula, where two neighboring countries sat 30 minutes apart in their clocks for nearly three years despite sharing a longitude range that would normally suggest a single offset.
The reversion to UTC+09:00 in May 2018 was officially attributed to Korean reunification efforts — aligning with South Korea's time was presented as a practical step toward national unity. This makes North Korea one of the few countries to realign its clocks for explicitly symbolic political reasons tied to inter-Korean relations.
Because the entire country lies within a narrow band of longitude (roughly 124°–131°E), one time zone covers it easily. UTC+09:00 is based on 135°E, so clocks in Pyongyang (about 125.8°E) run roughly 37 minutes ahead of local mean solar time.
Convert
North Korea to the world's clocks.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about North Korea's time zone, daylight saving rules, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- What timezone does North Korea use?
- North Korea uses Korea Standard Time (KST), UTC+09:00, the same as South Korea. Japan Standard Time (JST) uses the same offset.
- Did North Korea ever have a different timezone?
- Yes. From August 15, 2015 to May 5, 2018, North Korea used Pyongyang Time (PYT) at UTC+08:30, a 30-minute offset created specifically to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule. It then reverted to UTC+09:00.
- Is North Korea's timezone the same as South Korea's?
- Yes — both countries use UTC+09:00. Between 2015 and 2018, North Korea was 30 minutes behind South Korea, which created minor confusion at the DMZ and during any cross-border communication.
- Is North Korea's timezone the same as Japan's?
- Yes, North Korea's UTC+09:00 is the same offset as Japan Standard Time. This dates back to the Japanese colonial period when both Korea and Japan were aligned on the same time.
- Does North Korea observe daylight saving time?
- No. North Korea does not observe daylight saving time and has no history of seasonal clock changes.
- How many timezones does North Korea have?
- Just one. The entire country, from the northern border with China to the DMZ in the south, operates on a single timezone.
Source: IANA tzdb2026d · Reviewed
Free · Developer API
This country, as JSON.
Its default time zone, zone and city counts and DST summary, from one endpoint.
Also in the API: time zones by coordinates, conversions that flag daylight saving gaps, and abbreviations decoded.
Moving off WorldTimeAPI? Our drop-in replacement needs no key.