News
After Summit, Seoul removes loudspeakers, Pyeongyang aligns time zone
Apr 30,2018
The Ministry of National Defense announced on April 30 that it will remove propaganda loudspeakers near the border on May 1. The photo shows a set of loudspeakers installed in the central front in Gyeonggi-do Province in January 2016.
By Kim Young Shin
Photos = Yonhap News
South Korea will remove its propaganda loudspeakers from around the border with North Korea on May 1 as an initial follow-up action after the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit was held on April 27.
“From May 1, the loudspeakers installed along the border will be removed, starting with the ones along the Southern Limit Line,” announced the Ministry of National Defense on April 30.
“Removing the speakers is the easiest first step to building military trust,” said the ministry. “We decided to remove them because it was written in the Panmunjeom Declaration.”
The time zone between the two Koreas, currently 30 minutes different, will be aligned with Seoul Time (GMT+9) starting May 5. The photo above shows the clocks hung on the wall in the Peace House summit venue on April 27, showing the time in Seoul (left) and Pyeongyang.
North Korea also implemented its agreement made during the summit. Starting May 5, North Korea will shift its clocks to align with Seoul Time (GMT+9).
During the meeting with President Moon Jae-in, North Korea’s Chairman of the State Affairs Committee Kim Jong Un said that he would shift Pyeongyang’s clocks to align with the time in Seoul. North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on April 30 that the presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly decided to adopt a decree on resetting Pyeongyang Time and announced Pyeongyang Time to be shifted as of May 5.
“Chairman Kim Jong Un proposed to reset the standard time in North Korea,” said the KCNA. “Chairman Kim said that North and South becoming one means uniting the separated and adjusting the differences, and nothing better expresses his will to homogenize the two different standard times on the Korean Peninsula.”
The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, published an article about the time change on its front page on April 30 and said that the North Korean leader suggested to President Moon to change Pyeongyang Time to align with Seoul’s time zone.
ysk1111@korea.kr