North Korean calendar

The North Korean calendar or Juche calendar is the system of year numbering used in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

History

The Juche calendar was introduced in 1997 and is based on Kim Il-sung's date of birth: 15 April 1912. That year is used as Juche 1 and the system works forward from there. There is no Juche 0. The Juche calendar does maintain the Gregorian calendar's traditional months and the number of days in a month. Hence, to calculate the Juche year from a Gregorian year after 1912, simply subtract 1911. The Juche calendar officially replaced the Gregorian calendar as the civil calendar in North Korea on September 9, 1997.[1]

Examples

Juche year Gregorian year Dangun year
1 1912 4245 Kim Il-sung's birth
37 1948 4281 North Korea founded
71 1982 4315 Construction of the Juche Tower completed to commemorate Kim Il-sung's 70th birthday
86 1997 4330 Juche calendar introduced
100 2011 4344 Hundredth Juche year and Kim Jong-il's death
105 2016 4349 Current year

Usage in practice

In many instances of non-Korean usage the Juche year is given after the corresponding Gregorian year, i.e. 12 June 2007 (Juche 96). However, most official DPR-Korean sources list the Gregorian year second as in 12 June Juche 96 (2007).[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Juche era available in Korea
  2. ↑ Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Official webpage of the DPR of Korea, bottom of page
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