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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for North Korea

The list of North Korea bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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21 Feb 2007 (Chosun Ilbo) The recent 5-day public holiday (Feb 16-20), which combined Kim Jong-il’s birthday (Feb. 16), the Lunar New Year holidays, and celebrations of the Feb. 13 nuclear accord, saw the Lunar New Year holiday being called a bigger holiday than Jan. 1 by Kim Jong-il, although Lunar New Year is not officially a public holiday in North Korea. • 21 Dec 2006 There are unconfirmed, and possibly strongly biased, reports that each house in Musan, Onsung, Hoeryong in North Hamkyong Province, would receive electricity from the December 19th to 24th, commemorating Kim Jong Il’s mother, Kim Jong Suk’s birthday (Dec. 24). • 25 Jan 2005 (DPRK News Service) This year, the lunar new year public holiday, re-introduced a few years ago, will extend to 3 days, from February 9 to February 11, 2005. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the North Korea public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Lunar New Year: North Korea has officially observed the Lunar New Year since 2003. In addition, because the date of Lunar New Year often falls near Kim Jong Il's birthday, a 2-day public holiday on February 16-17, the 2 public holidays are often linked by bridge holidays. For example, in 2007, the Lunar New Year was celebrated as part of a 5-day public holiday that went from February 16th to the 20th. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Religion of Specific Business Contacts : Some of the business contacts that you may be trying to meet in North Korea, may belong to a religious group that is not common in North Korea, and therefore which is not included in the above list of public holidays or bank holidays. To be safe, you should also verify that no major religious holidays coincides with any planned business trip to North Korea. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in North Korea that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Korean Calendar Holidays : Both traditional Korean calendars used in North Korea (solar and lunar) possess a structure very similar to their Chinese counterparts. However, the Korean calendars use Korea's time zone as a reference point, rather than Beijing's, to determine the date when a Korean lunar calendar or Korean Solar Calendar event occurs. This sometimes causes some holidays based on either of the Korean calendars to occur one day earlier than the corresponding Chinese date (this occurs, on average, in about 4% of the cases).

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for North Korea, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of North Korea, before planning any trip to North Korea. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.