The holiday is celebrated with patriotic fanfare in both countries, although the North has found new ways to reassert its independence. For Liberation Day in 2015 — amid renewed military tensions with the South — Pyongyang created its own time zone.

“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time,” the North’s state-run news agency said.

The country had previously been in the same time zone as South Korea and Japan, but now sets its clocks 30 minutes behind.

Inyoung Kang contributed reporting.

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