World Calendars
Juche year today
North Korea counted its years from 1912, the birth year of its founder Kim Il Sung. The count came into use in 1997 and was dropped from official use in 2024.
Juche 115
11 November
- In the Gregorian calendar
- Wednesday 11 November 2026
- This day began
- At midnight, as Wednesday 11 November 2026 begins
- This day ends
- At midnight, as Thursday 12 November 2026 begins
- Year 2026 began
- Thursday 1 January 2026
- Next new year
- Friday 1 January 2027 (in 51 days)
- This year has
- 365 days in 12 months
- Year 1 began
- 1 January 1912
- Used
- In North Korea from 1997, often with the usual year in brackets
- How it works
- Ordinary months and days; only the year number changes
- Years count from
- 1912, the year Kim Il Sung was born (1912 is year 1)
- Ended
- October 2024, when the main newspaper switched to the usual year numbers
Next holidays in this calendar
51 days
1 January 2027 ยท Gregorian, Japanese era, Thai solar (Buddhist era), Republic of China (Minguo), Juche, Holocene (Human Era), Discordian, Revised Julian, Soviet work week
How the Juche calendar works
The Juche calendar numbers years from 1912, the year Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, was born. 1912 is Juche 1, so the Juche year is the Gregorian year minus 1911. Months and days stay Gregorian; only the year number changes. The name comes from Juche, usually translated as self-reliance, a key concept of the state ideology.
Under the 1997 decree, years after 1912 were written in Juche years alone or as a Juche year with the Christian-era year in brackets. Material on foreign relations could use both eras. Years before 1912, and spans that cross 1912, were written in Christian-era years only.
| Gregorian year | Juche year | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1912 | Juche 1 | Kim Il Sung born |
| 1945 | Juche 34 | Korean independence |
| 1948 | Juche 37 | North Korea founded |
| 1997 | Juche 86 | Year count adopted |
| 2024 | Juche 113 | Main newspaper drops the count |
| 2025 | (Juche 114) | Official calendars printed with "2025" |
The same year, 1912, is year 1 of the Minguo calendar used in Taiwan, which counts from the founding of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912. The two counts give the same number for every year.
Variants and the method used here
There is one rule, so the year has no variants. This site gives the Juche year for any date from 1 January 1912 by subtracting 1911 from the Gregorian year, and shows no Juche year for earlier dates, which the decree left in Gregorian years. The count is continued for dates after October 2024 as a conversion only: North Korean publications have stopped printing it.
A short history
The decree introducing the calendar was adopted on 8 July 1997, the third anniversary of Kim Il Sung's death. It also named his birthday, 15 April, the Day of the Sun. Use began on 9 September 1997, the anniversary of the founding of the Republic, in newspapers, news agencies, radio, public transport and birth certificates.
In October 2024 the count began to drop out of official use. Kim Jong Un's speech of 10 October and a foreign ministry statement of 11 October still gave the year as Juche 113. A later statement by Kim Yo Jong used "2024" instead, and from the day after it Rodong Sinmun, the main newspaper for readers inside the country, printed Gregorian years. An unnamed unification ministry official quoted by Yonhap described the change as part of Kim Jong Un's efforts to build his own personality cult and expected it to happen gradually.
The official calendars for 2025 print the year as 2025 instead of Juche 114. They still mark the Day of the Sun on 15 April and the Day of the Shining Star, Kim Jong Il's birthday, on 16 February.
Sources
How this site calculates the date: North Korean year count from 1912. North Korea's main newspaper stopped using it in October 2024.