North Korea to convene rare Parliament meet to discuss economic crisis

Functioning of cabinet, budgets, child care laws and legislation for overseas North Koreans are likely to be discussed

The session will be held in February (AP)

In a rare move, North Korea is set to hold a parliament session in February next year to discuss federal budget and childcare legislation.

To be held in Pyongyang, the session by Korea’s legislature will come almost half a year after the country gathered its top legislators in September this year.

North Korea rarely convenes its Parliament and it mostly comes together to approve decisions on budgets and governing policies structured by Korea’s Worker’s Party.

The decision to hold the parliament session was announced by the standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Tuesday as North Korea’s economic woes deepened. Choe Ryong Hae, a key official under North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, steered the committee.

Functioning of the Cabinet, budgets, child care laws, and the legislation for overseas North Koreans and protection of their rights and interests is among the key agenda for the parliament session, according to state news agency KCNA.

Other issues like laws on construction design, property and river and ship transport were also cleared by the standing committee on Tuesday.

A plenary meeting to be held in late December will review 2021’s economic activity and set plans for 2022, according to NK News.

In the meeting, Mr Kim is likely to deliver a speech spanning his plans on the domestic and foreign policy front, such as inter-Korean ties and denuclearisation talks with the US, for the upcoming year.

The announcement comes as Mr Kim marks ten years in power in North Korea despite domestic struggles to keep the economy afloat after United Nation sanctions, the pandemic and its increased isolation from the rest of the world due to lockdown.

As a result, the Korean nation’s economy plunged to a 23-year-low in 2020.

The most vulnerable in North Korea are at risk of starvation, a crisis aggravated by the country’s Covid-19 lockdown and a battered economy, according to the UN special rapporteur on human rights.

However, federal officials said on Wednesday that the country’s economy is being “stably managed”.

Additional reporting by agencies