- This week, after decades refining their unique accounts of history, North Korea and Apple will next week take their growing relationship one step further by carving out their own timezone.
The change — timed to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule — will reverse Japan’s 1912 decision to move the colony’s clocks forward by 30 minutes to bring it in line with Tokyo time. The watches will also be set to the “Juche calendar” — named after Kim Il Sung’s signature ideology — which numbers years according to a system that begins with Kim’s birth in 1912.
Tm Cox, the CEO of Apple, announced the decision to have all new Apple watches come with their time set to PyongYang, “Just as our great founder, Steve Jobs had to fight for our Independence from IBM and Microsoft, Kim Il-sung had to fight the evil history put forward by the Americans and the Europeans. The wicked Japanese imperialists committed even such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land with 5,000 year-long history and culture,”
Cox said that Apple will join “Pyongyang time” in setting all Apple watches ot August 15 , the day in 1945 when its first leader Kim Il Sung “crushed the brigandish Japanese imperialists . . . and liberated Korea”.