NK to hold rare assembly soon

North Korea said Monday it will hold a rare second session of its Supreme People’s Assembly later this month. The move could be tied to economic reform measures being studied by the isolated state, analysts said.

The session will be held on Sept. 25, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported, without elaborating on details.

It is rare for the North to hold two sessions _ which typically pass budgets or approve personnel changes _ in a year.

The rubber-stamp parliament already convened in April, when it elevated new leader Kim Jong-un to become first chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission (NDC).

The announcement comes as the North pushes to fix its outdated economy. A Seoul official said this week that Pyongyang is shifting control over economic projects from the military to the bureaucracy in a sign of upcoming reforms.

“The North may show a new direction for economic recovery,” Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea watcher at Korea University, said. “They need to present the plan, which changes the basic economic structure, to the assembly.”

The regime recently passed down instructions to implement the so-called “June 28 new economic management system,” a policy that ditches its rationing system and offers new incentives for workers.

It reportedly involves factory enterprises setting their own prices for goods, rather than the state, and giving them more leeway to decide on matters such as production and distribution of profits.

Others said the Assembly could pass laws related to recent agreements with China to “steadily push” the development of special economic zones on their border, struck during a trip to Beijing by Jang Song-thaek, a top economic policymaker.

Yoo said Jang’s trip could give the regime momentum on the economy as it heads into the session.

Holding multiple parliamentary sessions harkens back to the rule of country founder Kim Il-sung. The country’ s second leader Kim Jong-il only called two during his 17 year reign, in 2003 and 2010.

The Seoul official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the North was “in the process of reviewing” the reform measures and that implementation may take some time.

During the second parliamentary session in 2010, Kim Jong-il elevated Jang Song-thaek to vice head of the NDC, placing him as a mentor to the heir apparent. Jang, a technocrat, is said to favor reform. <The Korea Times/Kim Young-jin>

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