NKorea’s rubber-stamp parliament convenes amid questions about future leadership, economy

NKorea’s parliament likely to focus on economy

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament convenes an annual session Friday expected to show solidarity and perhaps indications of the impoverished and reclusive nation’s future leadership and economy.

The Supreme People’s Assembly meets one day a year in Pyongyang to approve bills vetted by the ruling Workers’ Party. The rare sessions are closely watched for clues to changes in the regime’s power structure.

Last year’s gathering marked leader Kim Jong Il’s triumphant return to the public eye after months out of sight amid rumors he had suffered a stroke in 2008. He looked markedly gaunt, but his presence confirmed he was in charge of the communist nation of 24 million.

Friday’s session takes place amid speculation that Kim will promote officials to help solidify his plan to hand over power to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un. At midday, (0300 GMT), there was no indication that the previously announced session had begun. State TV aired a documentary glorifying Kim and his leadership and a movie about North Korean soldiers.

Analysts said the session is likely to focus on the economy after a series of measures aimed at clamping down on the private markets that have flourished in recent years.

Last year, the North redenominated its currency as part of efforts to lower inflation and reassert control over the nascent market economy. But it reportedly worsened the country’s food situation as markets closed and many North Koreans were angered and left with piles of worthless bills.

North Korea also is feeling the pinch from tightened U.N. sanctions for its nuclear defiance last year, including testing an atomic bomb.

On Thursday, North Korea’s elite — senior officials from the Workers’ Party, the military and the government — gathered in Pyongyang to celebrate Kim Jong Il’s 17 years of leadership, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Major North Korean newspapers ran editorials praising Kim’s leadership, KCNA said Friday. Floral baskets and congratulatory letters have been streaming in from foreign diplomats and the military attaches, it said.

The celebrations come amid persistent questions about the 68-year-old’s health. Kim appears to be undergoing kidney dialysis every two weeks, Nam Sung-wook, head of the security think tank affiliated with South Korea’s top spy agency, said last month. Kim also is believed to have chronic heart disease and diabetes.

Kim, who inherited power in 1994 upon the death of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, has not publicly named a successor but is said to favor his Swiss-educated third son, believed to be in his mid-20s.

Kim Jong Il could promote Jong Un and his aides Friday to strengthen the succession plan, said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul. The son became head of the North’s top intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, last year, he said, citing a source he declined to identify.

Kim Jong Un is believed to hold a position on North Korea’s powerful National Defense Commission headed by his father, a strong sign he is being groomed to lead the country.

Cheong also said the North could partly reshuffle its Cabinet to give more power to the ministries of the agriculture and light industry.

North Korea is struggling to develop its agriculture and light industries, and to produce higher-quality consumer goods as outlined in its New Year message. However, the country remains plagued by chronic food shortages and other economic difficulties.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said lawmakers could review the state spending and budget Friday, and announce new laws to try to draw foreign capital as part of its efforts to revitalize the economy.

On Thursday, North Korea used the celebration of Kim’s leadership to warn the United States of “merciless strikes” if Washington refuses to drop a policy of hostility toward the regime.

North Korea cites the U.S. hostility toward Pyongyang as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear bombs. The two Koreas remain locked in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

Late Thursday, North Korea announced it would drop South Korea as a partner in a joint tourism project seen as a symbol of reconciliation.

A South Korean firm had been running tours to scenic Diamond Mountain just across the border in the North until the shooting death of a tourist in 2008 prompted Seoul to suspend the visits. North Korea said it would expel South Korean workers and restart the tours with another partner.