North Korea, a country of roughly 25 million people, is in the midst of a severe drought, which is contributing to food shortages that are leaving more than 10 million people without enough food. Even those lucky enough to have enough to eat have to suffer the indignity of living under a hereditary despotism of men with ridiculous haircuts.
But it’s not all bad news for the folks living in this nation-sized penitentiary. After all, on August 15th, North Koreans will get to sleep in a half an hour later.
That’s right, according to a report in the BBC, the North Korean government announced on Friday that it would be setting up its own time zone, which will be 30 minutes earlier than that which it currently uses. According to the report, the government made the decision to return to the time used in the Korean peninsula before Japan colonized it in 1910.
Before that time, all of Korea was 8.5 hours ahead of GMT, instead of the nine hours used in Korea and Japan today.