Time zone · Asia
KST
Korean Standard Time
Korean Standard Time keeps both North and South Korea on the same UTC+09:00 beat all year, with no daylight-saving time complicating schedules—so whether you’re working, texting, or streaming across the peninsula, 9 a.m. in Pyongyang is always 9 a.m. in Seoul.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Current offset
UTC+09:00
Standard · KST
Daylight saving
Not observed
Year-round standard time
IANA zones
2
None observe daylight saving
DST offset
—
No summer variant
About KST
A fixed, year-round offset.
Korean Standard Time keeps both North and South Korea on the same UTC+09:00 beat all year, with no daylight-saving time complicating schedules—so whether you’re working, texting, or streaming across the peninsula, 9 a.m. in Pyongyang is always 9 a.m. in Seoul.
IANA zones · the technical identifiers
The 2 zones that resolve to KST.
For software, always store the IANA identifier — never the abbreviation alone. The database keeps these zones distinct because their rules can, and historically did, diverge.
Cities across KST
Local time, city by city.
21 cities
Where KST is used
2 countries.
Same offset · UTC+09:00
Other zones at UTC+09:00 right now.
These named zones share KST's offset today. When daylight saving rules differ, they drift apart for part of the year.
Convert
KST to the world's clocks.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about KST, daylight saving, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- Why don’t either Koreas change their clocks?
- South Korea last used daylight saving time in 1987 and 1988, around the Seoul Olympics, and North Korea does not use it either. Both keep a fixed offset all year.
- Is Korean time always “9 hours ahead” of UTC?
- Yes. South Korea's standard time has been UTC+09:00 since 1961, and it has not used daylight saving time since 1988. North Korea used UTC+08:30 from August 2015 until May 5, 2018, when it moved back to UTC+09:00 to match Seoul.
- Can I really sync Pyongyang and Seoul down to the minute?
- Yes. Both use UTC+09:00 all year, so Pyongyang and Seoul show the same time to the minute.
- What does a shared time zone mean between North and South?
- Clocks in Pyongyang and Seoul show the same time, UTC+09:00, to the minute all year. North Korea’s own name, Pyongyang Time (PYT), belonged to its UTC+08:30 offset from 2015 to 2018; since May 2018 the time zone database labels both sides KST.
- Did Korea split its time and then reunify it?
- In a way, yes. North Korea used UTC+09:00, then UTC+08:30 (2015–2018), then reverted; South Korea used UTC+08:30 from 1954 to 1961. Pyongyang shifted back in 2018, so now both sides sit perfectly aligned again.
- Are there any world capitals on the same hour as Seoul?
- Yes. Tokyo, Pyongyang, Dili (Timor-Leste) and Ngerulmud (Palau) are all on UTC+09:00 year-round, the same as Seoul.
- How do train, bus, and plane times behave between the Koreas?
- With no DST and no offset difference, timetables don’t jump or fall back; schedules set in Seoul stay valid in Pyongyang and vice versa (if cross-border services exist), simplifying logistics.
- Is there any confusion over a “Korean time” vs “Japanese time”?
- Both show the same clock time (UTC+09:00) all year, but they are separate time zones with their own names: Japan Standard Time (JST) and Korea Standard Time (KST).
Source: IANA tzdb2026d · Reviewed
Free · Developer API
This time zone, as JSON.
Its defining offset, DST status and member counts, from one endpoint.
Also in the API: time zones by coordinates, conversions that flag daylight saving gaps, and abbreviations decoded.
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