N.Korea convenes key parliamentary meeting without Kim

Seoul, Feb 8 North Korea convened a two-day session of its rubber-stamp legislature earlier this week to discuss budgetary and other pending issues, but without the attendance of leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang's official state media said on Tuesday.

The 6th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) was held in Pyongyang on Sunday and Monday, attended by senior ruling party and Cabinet officials, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The session, however, apparently focused on such domestic matters as reviewing the state budget and adopting laws on child care and overseas compatriots.

No message has been issued in public for the US or South Korea, spawning speculation on the reasons, Yonhap News Agency said.

During the SPA gathering, the North's officials decided to increase expenditures for "emergency epidemic prevention work" by 33 per cent on-year in 2022 and vowed to further intensify efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as "the top priority of the state affairs", the KCNA said.

North Korea has imposed strict border controls since the start of the pandemic, though it has recently resumed partial freight train operations across the border with China.

On the economic front, participants in the session vowed efforts to implement the country's five-year development plan, and "make evident changes in developing the economy and improving the standard of people's living".

The North said its "total yearly industrial output plan was fulfilled at 148 per cent" last year despite "the hostile forces' persistent sanctions and worldwide health crisis".

The country's defense spending "for further bolstering the war deterrent both in quantity and quality" stood at 15.9 per cent of the total expenditures last year and remained unchanged for this year.

The SPA is the highest organ of power under the North's constitution, although it rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling Workers' Party.

Kim participated in eight out of 14 previous SPA sessions held after he took the helm of the country in late 2011 and delivered policy speeches at two of those events in April 2019 and September 2021.

During the SPA session held in September, the North's leader announced a decision to restore communication lines with South Korea as part of efforts to improve inter-Korean relations and achieve "durable peace" on the peninsula.