N.K. set to hold major parliamentary meeting after key party congress

By KH디지털2

Published : June 29, 2016 - 10:31

- Link copied

North Korea is set to convene its key parliamentary meeting Wednesday, where the North's leader Kim Jong-un may be bestowed with a new state title to reassert his control over the country, experts said.

The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly plans to hold the fourth session of the 13th assembly later in the day in a move widely seen as a follow-up to the party congress held in May.

The SPA, the legislative body of the reclusive country, rubber-stamps decisions by more powerful organizations, such as the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the National Defense Commission.

Experts said that Kim is expected to reaffirm his one-man leadership through the SPA meeting as he may be given a new state title.

At the first party congress in 36 years, Kim was elected as the chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, replacing his previous title of the WPK's first secretary.

His two other titles are the first chairman of the NDC, which was bestowed at the SPA session in 2012, and the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.

Senior party, military officials and parliamentary deputies visit the statues of North Korean late founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il on June 28, ahead of the meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly. (Yonhap)

Some analysts said that the communist country is likely to restore the state apparatus named the Central People's Committee and confer the title of the committee's chairman on him, replacing his title of the NDC head.

The constitution, which was revised in 1972, created the CPC, the highest organ controlling the executive, legislative and judicial branches. At that time, the NDC served as the subcommittee of the CPC.

Kim Il-sung, the country's late founder and the grandfather of the current leader, served as the head of the CPC. The committee was abolished in 1998 under the Kim Jong-il regime, which strengthened the NDC's role and advocated a military first, or "songun," policy.

"With a new state title, the North's current leader will likely cement one-man rule at a similar level to the absolute power enjoyed by his late father and grandfather," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute.

Seoul's unification ministry said that the North is likely to conduct an overhaul of Cabinet organs and reshuffle government officials in a bid to back the main decisions made at the WPK's congress.

Experts also said that at the SPA meeting, Pyongyang may announce details to flesh out the five-year strategy to boost the economy, which the North's leader unveiled at the party congress.

The assembly usually convenes in April, attended by hundreds of deputies, to finalize the country's budget spending and overhaul Cabinet organs. But the North held a smaller meeting in late March ahead of the party congress.

The parliamentary meeting comes as the U.N. Security Council slapped tougher sanctions on North Korea in March for its fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in the following month.

The North's leader has made it clear that he will "permanently" defend his signature policy of developing nuclear weapons in tandem with boosting the country's moribund economy, commonly known as the "byeongjin" policy. Seoul and Washington have warned that the dual-track policy is a dead end. (Yonhap)

N.K. set to hold major parliamentary meeting after key party congress

More from Headlines