Time zone · Asia
KST
Korean Standard Time
Korean Standard Time keeps both North and South Korea on the same UTC+09:00 beat all year, with no daylight-saving time complicating schedules—so whether you’re working, texting, or streaming across the peninsula, 9 a.m. in Pyongyang is always 9 a.m. in Seoul.
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Current offset
UTC+09:00
Standard · KST
Daylight saving
Not observed
Year-round standard time
IANA zones
2
None observe daylight saving
DST offset
—
No summer variant
About KST
A fixed, year-round offset.
Korean Standard Time keeps both North and South Korea on the same UTC+09:00 beat all year, with no daylight-saving time complicating schedules—so whether you’re working, texting, or streaming across the peninsula, 9 a.m. in Pyongyang is always 9 a.m. in Seoul.
IANA zones · the technical identifiers
The 2 zones that resolve to KST.
For software, always store the IANA identifier — never the abbreviation alone. The database keeps these zones distinct because their rules can, and historically did, diverge.
Cities currently on KST
The same hour, city by city.
21 cities · all UTC+09:00
Where KST is used
2 countries.
Same offset · UTC+09:00
Other zones at UTC+09:00 right now.
These named zones share KST's offset today. When daylight saving rules differ, they drift apart for part of the year.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about KST, daylight saving, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- Why don’t either Koreas change their clocks?
- Both countries abandoned daylight saving back in the 1980s (South Korea dropped it permanently in 1988). They’ve kept a fixed offset to simplify daily life, transport timetables, and cross-border coordination.
- Is Korean time always “9 hours ahead” of UTC?
- Yes. Korea Standard Time has stayed at a steady UTC+09:00 since May 2018, when Pyongyang abandoned its experimental UTC+08:30 offset; South Korea joined with Seoul’s time a few days later.
- Can I really sync Pyongyang and Seoul down to the minute?
- Officially, yes. However, unlike South Korea, North Korea’s online infrastructure is isolated in the domestic “Kwangmyong” network, so international services you’re connecting to still default to UTC+09:00 as listed in tzdata.
- What does a shared time zone mean between North and South?
- It actually means both countries are legally time-synchronous, but they call the zone “Pyongyang Standard Time (PYT)” and “Korea Standard Time (KST)” respectively—same seconds, different official names.
- Did Korea split its time and then reunify it?
- In a way, yes. North Korea used UTC+09:00, then UTC+08:30 (2015–2018), then reverted; South Korea went UTC+08:30 until 1988. Pyongyang shifted back in 2018, so now both sides sit perfectly aligned again.
- Are there any world capitals on the same hour as Seoul?
- Seoul shares its hour with Tokyo and Pyongyang, and roughly with Palau—all fixed at UTC+09:00.
- How do train, bus, and plane times behave between the Koreas?
- With no DST and no offset difference, timetables don’t jump or fall back; schedules set in Seoul stay valid in Pyongyang and vice versa (if cross-border services exist), simplifying logistics.
- Is there any confusion over a “Korean time” vs “Japanese time”?
- Informally people treat them as interchangeable (both fixed UTC+09:00), but officially “Japan Standard Time” and “Korean Standard Time” are distinct entries in the tz database—great for calendars, not for declaring a single Pacific Asian time zone.
Free · Developer API
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