North Korea will set the clocks back 30 minutes to align its time zone with South Korea\u2019s starting Saturday \u201cas a first practical step for\u2026<\/b>
\nNorth Korea will set the clocks back 30 minutes to align its time zone with South Korea\u2019s starting Saturday \u201cas a first practical step for national reconciliation and unity,\u201d the North\u2019s state media said Monday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said it was \u201ca painful wrench\u201d to see two clocks showing different Pyongyang and Seoul times on a wall at the summit venue during the historic meeting Friday with President Moon Jae-in, KCNA said.
The time change report confirmed news from South Korean officials on Sunday that Kim pledged to scrap the northern time zone, which was created in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea\u2019s liberation from Japanese rule after World War II.
South Korea and Japan are in the same time zone, 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
\u201cIt is not an abstract meaning that the north and the south become one but it is just a process in which the north and the south turn their different and separated things into the same and single ones,\u201d Kim said, according to the report.
At their summit Friday, Kim and Moon, without offering specifics, declared they would take steps to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended only with a truce, and work towards the \u201cdenuclearization\u201d of the Korean Peninsula.
Much now hinges on Kim\u2019s upcoming summit with President Trump, who said the meeting could happen over the next three to four weeks.
With the outcome still uncertain, the president nonetheless took credit for the meeting between the Korean leaders at his rally in Michigan Saturday night.
\u201cThey were saying, \u2018What you think President Trump had to do with it?\u2019 I will do you what. How about, everything \u2014 I will tell you what. How about, everything?\u201d he told the crowd, which chanted \u201cNobel! Nobel!\u201d as he spoke.
Trump also said that the US could walk out of the summit if developments don\u2019t go the way he wants.
Kim also told Moon he would soon invite experts and journalists from the United States and South Korea when the country dismantles its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site.
With Reuters<\/p>\n