N Korea to hold key parliamentary meet on Sep 7, organisational issues key

North Korea will convene a key parliamentary meeting in Pyongyang next month to discuss organisational and other pending issues, its state media said on Monday.

The standing committee of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), the North's rubber-stamp Parliament, held a plenary meeting on Sunday and decided to open the 7th Session of the 14th SPA on September 7, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The upcoming session is to discuss the issue of "adopting the law on the socialist rural development and the law on landscaping and the organizational matter", Yonhap News Agency reported citing the KCNA as saying.

The SPA is the highest organ of power under the North's constitution, but it rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling party. It usually holds a plenary session in March or April to deal mainly with the budget and cabinet reshuffles.

Last year, the North held SPA sessions in January and September.

Sunday's plenary session was presided over by Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the standing committee, without leader Kim Jong-un's attendance.

Attendees decided on convening the parliamentary meeting with unanimous approval and had discussions on other issues, including adopting the law on medicines and revising the law on aerospace development, according to the KCNA.

The North will also hold a national meeting next week to review the country's emergency anti-epidemic measures, the KCNA said in a separate report.

The meeting, expected to take place before August 15, draws attention to whether the North will announce an end to the coronavirus crisis or unveil changes to the anti-virus regulations as its new suspected Covid-19 cases have remained at zero since July 29.

Pyongyang disclosed its first Covid-19 case on May 12 after having claimed to be coronavirus-free for over two years and immediately declared a "maximum emergency" virus control system.

--IANS

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