North Korea says clocks in the country will be set forward by 30 minutes to realign with time in South Korea, a move described as "the first practical step" for national reconciliation and unity on the peninsula.
The decision to adjust the time zone was approved by the North's Supreme People's Assembly, the state controlled KCNA news agency reported on Friday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed the measure at a landmark meeting last week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that was held at the Peace House venue on their shared border. "I feel sad to see that there are two clocks hung on the wall in the Peace House, one for Seoul time and the other for Pyongyang time," Kim reportedly said at the talks, speaking of a "painful wrench".
The Koreas used the same time zone for decades before the North in 2015 created its own "Pyongyang Time" by setting its clocks 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan.
North Korea is now once again nine hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), placing it in the same time zone as South Korea and Japan.
Al Jazeera's Kathy Novak, reporting from the South's capital, Seoul, said that "many people here are feeling a renewed hope about this country's relationship with North Korea".
"South Korea welcomed the move, saying it represents a decision to remove the obstacles in the path to inter-Korean and US-North Korean exchanges and cooperation that are to come," added Novak.
shutting down North Korea's nuclear test site in Punggye-ri this month.
