North Korea calls parliamentary session to discuss education, economy

Seoul, Aug 26 (EFE).- North Korea has convened a parliamentary session for Sep. 28 to adopt laws related to youth education and to approve modifications to the national economic plan, according to the state news agency KCNA Thursday.

The Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly met in Pyongyang and published the corresponding resolution to convene the session on the aforementioned date, KCNA said.

During the session, it is expected that “adopting the law on developing cities and counties and the law on ensuring education of young people” will be discussed.

The announcement comes as North Korea, whose economy is being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, is emphasizing the importance of ideological education for young people in order to eradicate non-socialist practices.

The Sep. 28 session will also deal with “the issue of modification and supplementation of the law on national economic plan.”

In an unusual admission, at the beginning of the year, leader Kim Jong-un acknowledged that the results of the last five-year plan fell short of expectations in “almost all areas,” and in April he affirmed that the country, cornered by international sanctions and the pandemic, is experiencing its worst economic struggle since the 1990s.

Although the regime has spoken of reinforcing economic self-sufficiency to overcome the problems, in recent months imports from China, key to the survival of the impoverished country, have shown signs of recovery after falling 68 percent in 2020 due to virus-related border controls.

Organizational issues will also be addressed in the September session, an area that promises to attract the attention of analysts after the apparent ousting this summer of Ri Pyong-chol, who was one of five members of the presidium of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

The apparent demotion of Ri seems to respond, according to many experts, to a problem in the management of the army’s food reserves.

Although the Supreme People’s Assembly outwardly appears to be the legislative body of the country, it functions as automatic endorsement of the decisions taken by the top of the regime, including Kim.

It usually meets once a year to discuss budgetary and organizational matters, although under Kim’s leadership it has held exceptional sessions in 2012, 2014 and 2019.

The session on Sep. 28 will also be the second of 2021, given the Assembly met in January to endorse the decisions adopted at the last party congress. EFE

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