diff --git a/src/LitJson/JsonMapper.cs b/src/LitJson/JsonMapper.cs
index 38d68a7..805f86a 100644
--- a/src/LitJson/JsonMapper.cs
+++ b/src/LitJson/JsonMapper.cs
@@ -97,9 +97,19 @@ public IDictionary<string, PropertyMetadata> Properties {
     public delegate IJsonWrapper WrapperFactory ();
 
 
+    [Flags]
+    public enum JsonMapperOptions
+    {
+	None = 0x00,
+	DateTimesAlwaysUniversal = 0x01,
+    }
+
+
     public class JsonMapper
     {
         #region Fields
+	public static JsonMapperOptions Options;
+
         private static int max_nesting_depth;
 
         private static IFormatProvider datetime_format;
@@ -667,7 +677,11 @@ private static void RegisterBaseImporters ()
                               typeof (char), importer);
 
             importer = delegate (object input) {
-                return Convert.ToDateTime ((string) input, datetime_format);
+		DateTime result = Convert.ToDateTime((string) input, datetime_format);
+		if ((JsonMapper.Options & JsonMapperOptions.DateTimesAlwaysUniversal) != 0) {
+		    result = result.ToUniversalTime();
+		}
+		return result;
             };
             RegisterImporter (base_importers_table, typeof (string),
                               typeof (DateTime), importer);
diff --git a/test/JsonMapperTest.cs b/test/JsonMapperTest.cs
index 8a3421f..d37ba9e 100644
--- a/test/JsonMapperTest.cs
+++ b/test/JsonMapperTest.cs
@@ -196,6 +196,11 @@ public enum NullableEnum
         TestVal2 = 2
     }
 
+    public class DateTimeTest
+    {
+	    public DateTime dateTimeValue;
+    }
+
     public class NullableEnumTest
     {
         public NullableEnum? TestEnum;
@@ -1024,5 +1029,27 @@ public void NullableEnumExportTest()
             expectedJson = "{\"TestEnum\":null}";
             Assert.AreEqual(expectedJson, JsonMapper.ToJson(value));
         }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void DateTimeShouldBeUniversalTest()
+        {
+            string json = @"{
+                ""dateTimeValue"": ""2014-05-02T05:52:10.569000+00:00""
+            }";
+
+            JsonMapper.Options = JsonMapperOptions.DateTimesAlwaysUniversal;
+
+            DateTimeTest dateTimeTest = JsonMapper.ToObject<DateTimeTest>(json);
+            Assert.AreEqual(DateTimeKind.Utc, dateTimeTest.dateTimeValue.Kind);
+
+            json = @"{
+                            ""dateTimeValue"": ""2014-05-02T05:52:10.569000""
+                        }";
+
+            dateTimeTest = JsonMapper.ToObject<DateTimeTest>(json);
+            Assert.AreEqual(DateTimeKind.Utc, dateTimeTest.dateTimeValue.Kind);
+
+            JsonMapper.Options = JsonMapperOptions.None;
+        }	
     }
 }