Time in South Korea

History

In 1434, inventor Chang Yŏngsil developed Korea's first automatic water clock, which King Sejong adapted as Korea's standard timekeeper. It is likely that Koreans used water clocks to keep time prior to this invention, but no concrete records of them exist. In 1437, Chang Yŏngsil, with Chŏng Ch'o, created a bowl-shaped sundial called the angbu ilgu (), which King Sejong had placed in public so anyone could use it.

In 1908, the Korean Empire adopted a standard time, GMT+08:30. In 1912, during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Governor-General of Korea changed standard time to GMT+09:00 to align with Japan Standard Time. However, in 1954, the South Korean government under President Syngman Rhee reverted the standard time to GMT+08:30. Then in 1961, under the military government of President Park Chung-hee, the standard time was changed back to GMT+09:00 once again.

In order to accommodate American television viewers, South Korea observed daylight saving time (GMT+10:00) when Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics. The one-hour time change meant that many daytime events could be broadcast live from South Korea when it was prime time on the U.S. east coast.

North Korea also uses Korea Standard Time. From August 2015 to May 2018, North Korea changed its time zone to GMT+08:30, a time zone known as Pyongyang Standard Time, but the change was reverted to promote Korean unity.

IANA time zone database

The IANA time zone database contains one zone for South Korea in the file zone.tab, named Asia/Seoul.

References

References

1. "표준시".
2. "KST". Geospatial Information System Glossary.
3. "Current Local Time in South Korea".
4. Chad, Norman. (1987-01-30). "Live From Seoul, 1988 Olympics Now Are Ready For Prime Time". Washington Post.
5. Chappell, Bill. (2017-03-29). "The Olympics' TV Time-Delay Is Going Away, NBC Says". National Public Radio.
6. Pak, Sŏng-nae. (2005). "Science and Technology in Korean History: Excursions, Innovations, and Issues". Jain Publishing Company.
7. Park, Changbom. (2008). "Astronomy: Traditional Korean Science". Ewha Womans University Press.
8. Yu. (2010-08-09). "1961년 표준자오선 동경 135도로 변경".
9. (2015-08-07). "North Korea's new time zone to break from 'imperialism'". BBC News.
10. (2015-08-07). "Turning back the clock: North Korea creates Pyongyang Standard Time". Reuters.
11. (29 April 2018). "North Korea will close main nuclear test site in May, South says".
12. (2018-04-29). "혼란 주던 '30분 시차' 사라진다…서울 표준시로 "통일"".