SEOUL, Dec 5, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament will
hold its next session in late January, state media said Saturday — likely
meaning it will convene shortly after US President-elect Joe Biden takes
office.
The hermit state’s legislative body meets only once or twice a year,
mostly for day-long sessions to approve budgets or other decisions deemed
necessary by the ruling Workers’ Party.
“The 4th Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will be convened in Pyongyang late in
January,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
It gave no other details, including the session’s agenda. Such meetings
are carefully monitored by observers for any changes to economic policy or a
reshuffle of high-ranking officials.
At the last meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly in April of this
year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un carried out a major reshuffle of his
State Affairs Commission.
Under Kim, the North has made rapid progress on its nuclear arsenal,
launching missiles capable of reaching the whole of the US mainland, and has
been subject to increasingly stringent UN Security Council sanctions as a
result.
Talks with the US have been largely deadlocked since the collapse of last
year’s summit in Hanoi between Kim and US President Donald Trump over
sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in exchange.
Biden has characterised Kim — whose summits with Trump yielded few
tangible results — as a “thug”, so analysts are not expecting any quick
breakthroughs under the veteran Democrat.
Biden is set to take office on January 20, 2021.