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| ▲ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party in this photo released on Jan. 1, 2023, by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) |
N Korea-parliamentary meeting
N. Korea's state media outlets keep mum on key parliamentary meeting
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's state media outlets on Wednesday remained silent about whether it convened a key parliamentary meeting earlier this week, raising the possibility that the gathering could run for at least two days.
The North earlier announced its plan to hold the eighth session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) on Tuesday to discuss policy tasks, state budgets and organizational matters for 2023.
As of 9 a.m., the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and other official media outlets had not yet carried any report on the opening of the meeting. The KCNA usually reports the outcome of such a major political event the following morning.
The meeting is widely expected to last for at least two days, given that the North has held two-day sessions of its rubber-stamp parliament since September 2021.
In April 2020, Pyongyang announced an SPA meeting was convened two days later than it was supposed to be held, without giving any explanation on the change of schedule.
The SPA is the highest organ of state power under the North's constitution, but it actually only rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
The parliamentary session has been a focus of attention for the outside world as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could deliver a message toward South Korea or the United States or comment on the country's development of nuclear and other major weapons.
In an SPA session in April 2019, Kim voiced his willingness to hold his third summit with then U.S. President Donald Trump following the no-deal second summit in early 2019. In a meeting in September 2021, Kim said he would restore the severed inter-Korean communication channel.
Observers said the SPA is widely expected to approve major decisions made at the WPK's plenary meeting held in late December last year.
During the party meeting, the North's leader called for an "exponential" increase of the country's nuclear arsenal while labeling South Korea as his country's "undoubted enemy."
This month's meeting comes amid heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with speculations that the North may conduct a nuclear test in the near future.
[https://youtu.be/BJ8mE1azUYg]
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