Archive for the ‘Supreme Peoples Assembly’ Category

DPRK strengthens control mechanisms with revised law on the people’s economy

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)

NK Brief No. 10-11-26-1
11/26/2010

North Korea has recently revised its law governing the planning of the People’s Economy, significantly strengthening the state’s ability to oversee and control economic activities throughout the country. The South Korean Ministry of Unification recently released the contents of the law, which the North revised on April 6, as well as details of two laws created by the Supreme People’s Committee Standing Committee on July 8; the Law on Labor Protection (Order 945) and the Chamber of Commerce Law (Order 946).

The new law on economic planning contains seven new articles, but since the details of the August 2009 revision were never made public, it is unclear when the new articles were added. What is clear, however, is how different the new law is when compared to the Law on Planning the People’s Economy that was passed in May, 2001 and the Economic Management Reform Measure enacted on July 1, 2002, both of which significantly boosted the autonomy of business managers and eased government restrictions on economic activity.

With the July 1 Measure, the authority of the National Economic Planning Committee was downgraded, central allocations were graduated based on managerial autonomy and profits, the central rationing system was dismantled, and wages were increased. While the economic planning law of 2001 and the July 1 Measure of 2002 eased restrictions on, and oversight of, the people’s economy, the newly-revised law strengthens state control. The new law appears to not only return but also bolster the central control mechanisms that were eliminated by the 2001 law.

Article 16 of the new law states that the planned economy will be based on prepared figures, while Article 18 states that enterprises, organizations and companies will operate on the principle of ensuring regulated numbers, and Article 24 requires the people’s economic plan, drafted by the Cabinet, State Planning Organization, and regional authorities, to be broken down in detail, by timeframe and indexes, and distributed to enterprises, organizations and companies by the end of October. The planning law passed in 2001 called for economic plans to be drawn up based on production statistics provided from ‘below’ and passed up through chains of command (Article 17), but this has been eliminated from the new law.

With the revision of the law on labor protection, North Korea has added more specific language to Article 12 of the ‘Socialist Labor Law’, which was established in April 1978. Article12 of the Law on Labor Protection states that the protection of laborers’ work is the primary demand of the socialist system, which sees the people as the most precious resource. The law strengthens the role of the state in protecting laborers, and identifies ‘difficult and strenuous’ jobs, including mining, fishing, and earthquake investigation. Workers in these fields are to be given favorable treatment, including the issuance of additional clothing, food and other rations.

In addition, the law covers the installation and maintenance of safety equipment, the issuance of protective gear, and additional protections for female workers. It also restricts work to eight hours per day and guarantees holidays and time off, health care, and protection of property. These and other articles in the law increase state management of workers, but defector testimonies paint a different picture. Most workers save their wages with the assumption that they will have to pay bribes, medical costs and other expenses out-of-pocket.

The law on commercial activity further details the ‘Chamber of Commerce Regulation’ handed down by the Cabinet in 2008. The law covers a range of duties and rights regarding commercial operations, including contracts and operations regarding joint ventures with foreign firms; legal letters of confirmation, certificates of country of origin and other paperwork related to trade issues; as well as exhibitions and conventions held in conjunction with foreign businesses.

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DPRK premier courting Chinese investment

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

According to Yonhap:

North Korea’s Cabinet premier is visiting northeastern China to meet with ranking officials there and speed up joint economic projects between the communist allies, sources here said Wednesday.

Choe Yong-rim arrived in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang Province earlier this week and visited the city of Changchun in a nearby province on Wednesday, the diplomatic sources said.

Choe, promoted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at a parliamentary convention in June, is seen as trying to consolidate the ties between Pyongyang and Beijing as the two countries seek to develop a joint economic bloc that draws from resources in China.

His visit comes after Kim visited the area in late August. During a summit between the North Korean leader and Chinese President Hu Jintao, the countries promised to boost their political and economic cooperation.

Choe’s trip, also reported by a local daily here, comes after 12 of the highest-ranking North Korean mayoral and provincial chiefs visited the same region in October, touring food, chemical and agricultural factories along with other major facilities.

Believed to be a key aide to North Korea’s next leader, Kim Jong-un, the premier inspected electronics and medicine companies and a agricultural research center in Harbin on Tuesday, the sources said.

Choe, 79, formerly chief of the Pyongyang department for the ruling Workers’ Party, has been noted for his rise to power in the past several months. He gave a speech at a mass rally on May 30, where as many as 100,000 North Koreans reportedly denounced South Korea and the United States for blaming Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

Read the full story here:
DPRK premier in northeastern China for economic cooperation
Yonhap
11/3/2010

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DPRK hosts insurance seminar

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

According to Naenara:

The Pyongyang International Insurance Seminar on “Marine Insurance & Reinsurance: the Challenges of the Time” ran between June 7 and 8, 2010.

Present at the seminar were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, Pak Su Gil, vice-premier and minister of Finance, So Tong Myong, president of the Korea National Insurance Corporation (KNIC) and chairman of the organizing committee of the seminar, officials from the KNIC, insurance workers from the provinces and officials concerned.

Among those present were Ezzat Abdel-Bary, secretary general of the Federation of Afro-Asian Insurers and Reinsurers, and his party, Roberto Quinto Martinez, permanent secretariat of the Association of Insurance and Reinsurance in Developing Countries, delegates from companies of China, Morocco, Sudan, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, India and Egypt, officials of foreign embassies and missions of international organizations in the DPRK.

A delegation from the Kumgang Insurance Company of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan was also present at the seminar.

The seminar heard papers on marine cargo insurance, marine cargo claims and adjustment—an overview, the art of adjusting catastrophe claims, new trend in the reinsurance market and other papers. Then speeches were made.

The seminar provided the participants with an opportunity to find a way out of instability in the field of insurance affected by the global financial crisis and let each country make an effective use of its own financial resources in the field of insurance and strengthen the international cooperation and exchange.

Unfortunately, when I hear the words “DPRK” and “insurance,” I think of this.

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DPRK shakes up elite in order to meet 2012 “strong and prosperous” goal

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 10-06-14-2
6/14/2010

During the third session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly, convened on June 7, Kim Jong Il promoted his brother-in-law Jang Sung Thaek to vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission (NDC), named a new premier, and replaced several department heads and ministers. This appears to be an attempt to shore up the regime as it seeks to “open the door to a strong and prosperous nation” by 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il made a personal appearance at this latest assembly meeting, unlike the SPA meeting held in April. The leader’s presence hints at the importance of the latest gathering.

This promotion of Jang Sung Thaek and shake up of Cabinet positions appears to be part of efforts to realize the quickly approaching goal of establishing a ‘strong and prosperous nation’ by 2012, assigning those most able to positions of responsibility, regardless of age or experience. Most notably, Jang, widely thought to be second-in-command in North Korea, was promoted to vice-chairman of the NDC. He was first appointed to the NDC at the first meeting of the 12th SPA in April 2009, making his climb to vice-chairman in a mere 14 months.

Before the latest promotion, Jang held the position of vice-director of the Workers’ Party of Korea, a newly created position that he was the first to hold. In this position, Jang oversaw national security offices, police, and the courts, putting him in a position of power difficult for anyone else to achieve. Having traveled to both South Korea and China, Jang Sung Thaek was likely promoted to present the image of a strong military and, at the same time, establish stable relations with the international community in order to ensure a smooth transition of power as well as to resurrect the economy by 2012. When Kim Jong Il led a delegation to China last May, the Chinese government treated Jang very well, ignoring standard protocol for someone in his position.

In addition, Choe Yong Rim was named the North’s new premier, and eight new vice-ministers were appointed. Regional Party secretaries were allowed to participate directly, allowing those who are most knowledgeable of local conditions to impact the decisions of the administration. Most of the new appointments were very experienced elites, including Choe Yong Rim (80) as premier, and Kang Neung Su (80), Kim Rak Hui (77), Ri Thae Nam (70), and Jun Ha Chul (82). The regime is promoting a number of veterans who are making their “last stand for the motherland” as part of the effort to ensure stable transformation of power after Kim Jong Il.

With Kim Rak Hui’s appointment as vice-premier and new appointments to the Ministry of Foodstuff and Daily Necessities Industry as well as the head of the Light Industry Ministry, North Korea seems to be pursuing the improvement of standards of living promised in the 2010 New Year’s joint editorial. Pyongyang Party officials appear to be attempting to reassert a centrally planned economy in the aftermath of botched currency reform efforts; however those witnessing regional economic conditions appear much more able to come up with appropriate economic policies. North Korea has been unable to make any significant progress in resolving its food shortages or its inability to provide daily necessities to the public, leading the regime to scapegoat some high-ranking officials. Now, many in and outside of North Korea are watching closely to see if the regime can launch economic efforts capable of successfully ‘opening the door to a Strong and Prosperous Nation’ in the next two years.

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Lankov on succession

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Writing in the Asia Times

A few days ago, a new session of the Supreme People’s Assembly – North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament – was convened in Pyongyang. In most cases, such sessions do not attract much attention outside a tiny circle of the full-time Pyongyang watchers: few people would be excited by the sight of monotonously and tastelessly dressed men and women sitting in rows and raising their hands to signal their unanimous approval of the laws and resolutions that – as everybody understands – seldom bear any relation to reality.

However, this time observers suspected that something unusual was going to happen. The assembly’s last session took place in April, and was not supposed to meet again so soon. As we learned on June 7, parliament was convened to authorize (with the expected 100% approval rate) a major reshuffle of the North Korean leadership – and, judging by the urgency of gathering, this reshuffle was seen as a pressing matter.

A few days earlier, on June 3, the official North Korean wire agency reported that one day before, Yi Che-kang, the first deputy chairman of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, had been killed in a traffic accident. The victim of a car crash was, formally speaking, second only to Dear Leader Kim Jong-il in the party hierarchy.

This news had to be suspicious: North Korea’s traffic is arguably the thinnest in Asia, but the country has a long tradition of traffic incidents taking the lives of high officials. The first such incidents occurred in the early 1970s, during the transition of power from the country’s founding father Kim Il-sung to his son.

Nowadays, the new dynastic transition is unrolling. In early 2009, after long delays and much hesitation, Kim Jong-il decided that his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, would become the next great leader of the country. So far, no reference to the “Young General” has appeared in the open media, but one can come across accolades to his greatness and superhuman wisdom in classified materials that are published for the benefit of officials (and distributed widely).

The events of the past week allow us to surmise how the power structure of North Korea will look like in the first years after Kim Jong-il’s death. It seems that North Korean political heavyweights have finally begun to prepare for the unthinkable – the demise of the Dear Leader.

The choice of Kim Jong-un as a heir designate serves, above all, the interests of the North Korean elite, so one can even suspect that the choice was somehow pushed on Kim Jong-il by his entourage. The “Young General” really is young, being merely 27 or 28 years old. Even North Korean propaganda mongers find this embarrassing, so they insist General Kim is in his early 30s.

The choice of such an exceptionally young candidate serves, above all, the interests of the old guard, Kim Jong-il’s own entourage. A young crown prince has no power base and no allies. Thus, even if he technically becomes the supreme leader, he will have no choice but to follow the advice of his father’s entourage, that is, people who are running the country now. He is doomed to become a puppet – at least for some while.

However, a weak crown prince will require an able prince regent. For the past few years, most Pyongyang watchers agreed that the most likely candidate to take such a position is Jang Song-taek, a brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il.

Born in 1946, he is 64 and hence young by the standards of North Korea, where a majority of the top leaders are in their 70s and 80s. The recent Supreme People’s Assembly session confirmed these speculations. At the session, Jang was appointed vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. The North Korean constitution stipulates that the chairman of this body is head of the state, and Kim Jong-il runs the country exactly in this capacity. Therefore, Jang officially became the second-placed person in the country.

The car incident that killed Yi Che-kang was also timely for Jang Song-taek. Yi was widely believed to be a rival of Jang. Now, with Yi dead, Jang seems to have no serious rivals left. The recent assembly session also appointed a new head of the North Korean cabinet. In North Korea, the prime minister is essentially a top technocrat, but it is still significant that this position went to Choe Yong-rim, who is rumored to be close to Jang.

Jang’s position remains precarious: Kim Jong-il is still the supreme leader, and in North Korea even blood connections with the highest family do not always secure a person from august wrath. In the past, family members have been exiled a number of times, and in one case a young relative of the Dear Leader was assassinated in Seoul, where he had defected. A few years ago, Jang Song-taek disappeared from public sight for a year, and he is widely believed to have spent this time in exile.

At any rate, the North Korean elite – with at least tacit approval of Kim Jong-il – began to work on the architecture of a post-Kim Jong-il regime. It seems that the future power structure will consist of Kim Jong-un, a much extolled Star of Revolution and Shining Comrade (or whichever flowery titles they will invent) who will essentially be a powerless puppet while real authority will dwell with a council of technocrats and generals presided over by Jang Song-taek. In all probability, it means that the death of Kim Jong-il will not bring about much change: for a while the country will be steered by the same people who have been running it for the past two or three decades.

However, power transitions do not always go as intended. To start with, Kim Jong-un’s personality cult is still in its infancy, and it will take few years to develop it to the usual North Korean levels. We are yet to see pages of all newspapers filled with countless stories of the “Young General’s benevolence”. However, before the personality cult is developed enough, not only Kim Jong-un’s position but the entire system will remain insecure. We do not know whether Kim Jong-il and his old guard have enough time at their disposal: at the latest Supreme People’s Assembly session the Dear Leader did not look particularly well.

It is also possible that after Kim Jong-il’s death some cracks in the top leadership, now invisible, will lead to intense infighting and thus undermine the cohesion that is essential for the stability of the system.

And even if the transition goes smoothly enough, the resulting system will remain inherently unstable. Kim Jong-un might be young, inexperienced and compliant now, but he will get stronger and wiser, and in all probability will not be too happy about the control of the old dignitaries. Many young kings ended up challenging and removing their regents.

On the other hand, the likely members of the future regent council are quite old, with an average age of 75 or so, hence in a decade many of the present-day top dignitaries will be dead from natural causes (and, perhaps a car crash or two).

Finally, Jang Song-taek might be tempted into assuming all power for himself. Nasty things are known to have happened to young crown princes in the past – from food poisoning to riding incidents and, perhaps, even good old car crashes.

But, whatever happens, the first days of June saw the contours of post-Kim Jong-il North Korea emerge.

Read the full story below:
Son rising for a post Dear Leader era
Asia Times
Andrei Lankov
6/16/2010

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DPRK announces another SPA session

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

According to Yonahp:

North Korea will open its rubber-stamp parliament for the second time in less than two months, a session analysts say is likely to be joined by leader Kim Jong-il who recently returned from a trip to China amid rising tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The communist state’s official media reported Tuesday the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) will convene on June 7, exactly a month after Kim returned from his summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.

The last session, which was skipped by Kim, convened on April 9.

The 687-member assembly has not opened twice in one year since 2003. Even then, each session was held by a separate group of representatives, a Unification Ministry official here said.

“The (South Korean) government will closely monitor the upcoming session,” the official said, asking not to be named.

“This should be seen as an extraordinary session at an extraordinary time,” Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea researcher at the Sejong Institute, said. “Kim will likely be present to oversee it.”

Paik was referring to heightened tensions between the divided Koreas since a South Korean warship sank on March 26 near the western sea border with North Korea.

A ranking South Korean defense official said Tuesday investigators have found evidence that points to a North Korean attack on the 1,200-ton Cheonan. Forty-six of the ship’s crew members died when the ship split in half.

“The parliament will also declare its support for economic cooperation projects Kim has brought from China,” Paik said, adding that North Korea fears sanctions on it will tighten if Seoul and Washington conclude Pyongyang is to blame for the ship sinking.

Baek Seung-joo, a researcher from the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said Kim is likely to call for support for a power succession that has been secretly underway in Pyongyang.

“This will be much focused on domestic politics,” Baek said, discounting the significance of the meeting between the North Korean and Chinese leaders.

“We may see clear moves that indicate Kim’s third son is rising up the ladder,” he said, adding the ship sinking is unlikely to be a major topic as Pyongyang has already denied any link to the incident.

Pyongyang held its first session of the newly elected SPA last year, reappointing leader Kim Jong-il to another five-year term as head of the National Defense Commission, the highest seat of power.

A member of the 13-man commission was retired earlier this month due to his age, and Baek said that opens up room for a cascade of reshuffles that can help pave the way for a power transfer.

The coming session also comes as North Korea remains reluctant to return to stalled six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programs.

Pyongyang says it will rejoin the aid-for-denuclearization talks only if Washington agrees to launch separate talks toward a peace treaty to formally close the 1950-53 Korean War and the United Nations lifts its sanctions on the country.

The six-nation talks include the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan. Kim pledged to work with China to create “favorable conditions” for their resumption in his summit meeting in China, but Seoul and Washington say it depends on the outcome of the investigation into the ship sinking.

Cho Myung-chul, a North Korea researcher at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul, said the SPA may issue a statement denouncing any South Korean or U.S. moves linking the sinking to the North.

He noted that the U.S. Senate last week passed a resolution calling for a thorough probe of the incident, while South Korea will announce the results of a multinational investigation later this week.

“The SPA may announce measures and warning against South Korea and the United States,” Cho said.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea unexpectedly calls rubber-stamp parliament into session
Yonhap
Sam Kim
5/18/2010

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DPRK 2009, 2010 budgets

Friday, April 16th, 2010

According to KCNA:

Report on Implementation of 2009 Budget and 2010 Budget
 
Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) — Deputy Pak Su Gil, vice-premier and minister of Finance, delivered a report on the results of the implementation of the DPRK state budget for last year and its state budget for this year at the 2nd Session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly held on Friday.

According to the report, the state budget for last year was successfully implemented and, as a result, the state budgetary revenue was overfulfilled 1.7 per cent, an increase of 7 per cent over the previous year.

Ministries, national institutions, management bureaus and complexes overfulfilled the national plans for budgetary revenue and all provinces, cities and counties across the country also overfulfilled their plans for local budgetary revenue.

Last year’s plan for state budgetary expenditure was carried out at 99.8 per cent.

An investment from the state budget was focused on the development of metal industry while a huge financial allocation was made for the power and coal industries and the railway transport.

8.6 per cent more funds than the previous year were spent for capital construction and expenditure was increased for agriculture and light industry.

A 7.2 per cent greater financial disbursement than the previous year was made for the field of science and technology, surpassing the level of the latest science and technology in domains of space technology, nuclear technology and CNC technology and putting the key industries of the national economy on a high scientific and technological basis.

A large amount of fund went to the field of cultural construction and 15.8 per cent of the total state budgetary expenditure was spent for national defence.

The reporter said that the scale of revenue and expenditure in the state budget for this year has been set on the principle of improving the people’s standard of living to meet the requirements of the policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea on conducting a great offensive to bring about a decisive turn in the above-said work.

This year’s plan for state budgetary revenue is expected to grow 6.3 per cent over last year. The revenue from the profits of state enterprises, the main source of state budgetary revenue, is expected to go up 7.7 per cent over last year, that from the profits of cooperative organizations 4.2 per cent, that from the fixed asset depreciation 2.5 per cent, that from real estate rent 2 per cent and that from social insurance 1.9 per cent.

This year’s plan for state budgetary expenditure is expected to show an 8.3 per cent increase over last year.

The spending for the light industry is expected to go up 10.1 per cent, that for agriculture 9.4 per cent and that for metal, power and coal industries and railway transport 7.3 per cent as compared with last year.

The expenditure for the machine-building industry is expected to go up and an 8.5 per cent bigger financial allocation will be made for scientific researches and the introduction of new technologies.

A 6.2 per cent bigger financial disbursement than last year is expected to be made to more successfully enforce the popular policies, a proof of the advantages of Korean-style socialism centered on the popular masses.

15.8 per cent of the total state budgetary expenditure for this year is expected to be spent for national defence.

It is expected that a large amount of educational aid fund and stipends will be sent for the children of Koreans in Japan this year, too.

In order to successfully implement this year’s state budget, all domains and units of the national economy should work out enterprising and realistic business strategy and management strategy and tenaciously carry them out by relying on a high degree of mental power of the producer masses and thus fulfill the plans for budgetary revenue without fail, stressed the reporter.

And according to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il can freely dispose of 20 percent of his country’s budget, a former secretary of North Korean Workers’ Party has said that. Hwang Jang-yop told the Asahi Shimbun, “Only 30 percent of the budget is spent on public services, while 50 percent is earmarked for military spending.” Hwang defected to South Korea in 1997.

Hwang was interviewed by the daily during his visit to Japan on April 4-8. “Kim Jong-il’s dictatorship is 10 times worse than his father’s. People have a painful life,” he said.

Asked if the North is likely to abandon its nuclear weapons program, he said, “There is no such possibility. But the North won’t use the weapons. They’re a means to maintain the regime.”

To the question why Kim’s eldest son Jong-nam was passed over for the succession, he said, “At first, Kim Jong-il thought of choosing his eldest son as his successor. But he seems to have changed his mind as he fell in love with Ko Young-hee, the mother of Jong-un, his third son, after Jong-nam’s mother Song Hye-rim died.”

Commenting on the North’s bizarre abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s, he said, “The North needed native Japanese to train agents who would work in Japan.”

Read the full story here:
Kim Jong-il ‘Gets 20% of N.Korea’s Budget for His Own Use’
Choson Ilbo
4/12/2010

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SPA meeting last Friday

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

UPDATE 1: Here is what KCNA had to say:

SPA of DPRK Meets

Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) — The 2nd Session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Friday.

It was attended by deputies to the SPA.

Officials of Party, armed forces and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions and those in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media attended it as observers.

The session discussed the following agenda items: “1. On the work of the DPRK Cabinet in Juche 98 (2009) and its tasks for Juche 99 (2010)”, “2. On the results of the implementation of the DPRK state budget for Juche 98 (2009) and its state budget for Juche 99 (2010)”, “3. On the adoption of the ordinance of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly ‘On revising some provisions of the DPRK Socialist Constitution'” and “4. Organizational matter”.

Deputy Kim Yong Il, premier of the Cabinet, in a report on the first agenda item said that last year the indomitable mental power of all the people of the country and production potential were fully displayed and, as a result, the gross industrial output value markedly grew as compared with that in 2008. This year the Cabinet will boost the production of consumer goods and grain by leaps and bounds by putting spurs to the development of light industry and agriculture once again and reenergize the overall production by giving definite priority to the production of electricity, coal, iron and steel and railway transport and, at the same time, energetically organize and conduct the campaign for a great surge with main emphasis on stepping up the technological upgrading and modernization of the national economy, he added.

Deputy Pak Su Gil, vice-premier of the Cabinet and minister of Finance, in a report on the second agenda item said that last year’s state budget revenue was overfulfilled 1.7 percent and the state budgetary expenditure was implemented at 99.8 percent.

He noted that the plan for state budgetary revenue for this year is expected to increase 6.3 percent over last year while the plan for state budgetary expenditure is expected to grow 8.3 percent.

Speakers at the session pointed out that the Cabinet’s work last year and the implementation of its state budget were properly reviewed and summed up, this year’s tasks were clearly laid down and its state budget was correctly shaped. They expressed full support and approval of them.

They manifested their resolution to successfully put into practice the Party’s intention and idea of augmenting the country’s political and military potentials in every way and bringing about a dramatic turn in improving the people’s standard of living in this significant year marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Worker’s Party of Korea.

The session adopted the decision of the SPA of the DPRK “On approving the report on the work of the DPRK Cabinet and the results of the implementation of the DPRK state budget for Juche 98 (2009)” and the ordinance of the SPA of the DPRK “On the DPRK state budget for Juche 99 (2010).”

Also adopted there was the ordinance of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly “On revising some provisions of the DPRK Socialist Constitution”.

Deputy Pyon Yong Rip was elected secretary general of the Presidium of the SPA to fill vacancy and Deputy Jang Pyong Gyu was appointed as director of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office at the session.

ORIGINAL POST: We still don’t know exactly what happened, but  below is some information from the meeting.

According to the New York Times:

North Korea’s rubber-stamp legislature convened Friday in the capital, Pyongyang, offering few hints of a major policy shift despite a growing desperation for economic recovery.

The country’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il, did not show up at the Supreme People’s Assembly, igniting speculation about his health and whereabouts. His absence from the assembly, although not unusual, followed some unconfirmed news reports in South Korea in the past week that he might already have embarked on a clandestine trip to China to win needed aid. South Korean officials questioned those reports, though they had earlier predicted that he might soon visit China, the North’s last remaining major ally.

Outside analysts have been closely monitoring Mr. Kim’s absences or appearances in major state affairs since his 2008 stroke fueled speculation on how long he could stay in power. Mr. Kim, 68, is now struggling with North Korea’s deepening economic woes while preparing to hand over power to a son.

On Friday, the legislative session adopted a second constitutional revision in a year, the country’s state-run news agency, KCNA, reported without providing details. The South Korean news agency Yonhap speculated that the amendment might be intended to help the transfer of power from Mr. Kim to his third son, Kim Jong-un, 27.

Others doubted it.

“I think it may have more to do with the economy or a minor readjustment of the Constitution,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul.

The gatherings of legislators in the North provide outside officials and analysts with a rare opportunity to seek clues to North Korean policies and any changes in its leadership hierarchy.

Kim Jong-il, who is also a legislator, has often skipped the sessions. But he used the meeting last year to demonstrate that he was still in charge despite having suffered a stroke in 2008. After months of being out of sight, he entered the parliamentary hall to the thunderous applause of loyal members, though he looked gaunt and limped slightly.

At the time, the assembly approved the first constitutional revision in 11 years to make one of Mr. Kim’s several official titles — chairman of the National Defense Commission — the supreme ruling post in North Korea. The move reconfirmed his already absolute grip on power.

Analysts had said that the session this year was most likely to focus on reviving North Korea’s moribund economy, a goal the nation had set at the start of the year.

On Friday, KCNA reported that the session passed a budget for the year that promised a 10.1 percent increase in spending for consumer goods industries and a 9.4 percent increase for agriculture.

North Korean reports on Friday’s session made no reference to the country’s tricky relations with South Korea and the United States. But the country’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the North would continue to build and modernize nuclear weapons.

An unidentified spokesman of the ministry told KCNA that North Korea was willing to “denuclearize the Korean Peninsula” — but only if the United States abandoned its “hostile policy” toward the North.

According to AFP (via Asia One):

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament at its annual meeting Friday will focus on ways to improve living standards after a bungled currency change sparked widespread public anger, analysts said.

Members of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) are effectively chosen by the ruling communist party, and they endorse the bills it puts forward without serious debate.

But the day-long session indicates the secretive regime’s priorities and any changes to the line-up among the ruling elite.

Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies said legislators would approve institutional and personnel changes to bolster leader Kim Jong-Il’s power and prepare for the eventual succession of his third son Jong-Un.

The North is apparently moving to put the national police agency under the direct control of the National Defence Commission headed by Kim, he said.

It was unclear whether the leader would attend the meeting, as he did last year – looking frail and gaunt after a reported stroke.

Since then the regime has been grappling with serious food shortages and tougher UN sanctions imposed to curb its missile and nuclear ambitions.

The currency revaluation last November 30 wa

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North Korea revises economic management laws

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No.09-12-21-1
12/21/2009

The Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) announced on December 16 that the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee has revised the North’s Real Estate Management Law, the Commodities Consumption Level Law, the General Equipment Import Law, and other laws related to economic management. This on the heels of the November 30th announcement, when authorities announced across-the-board currency reform measures, apparently in an attempt to regain control of the country’s market economy.

The KCBS reported that the Real Estate Management Law “regulates fundamental issues of real estate registration and inspection, use, and payment of user fees,” but offered no further details.

Since 2006, North Korean authorities established new offices in each city, county, and region throughout the country. These offices were responsible for surveying property, occupied and vacant, claimed by organizations and businesses, as well as recording the size of each structure on these lands.

In the mid-1990s, with the onset of serious food shortages, food rations to workers were halted and North Korean authorities from every branch and level (including the military, railway, business enterprises) were encouraged to distribute foodstuffs in ways more beneficial to themselves. These authorities planned to resolve food distribution issues through agricultural moves.

The new Real Estate Management Law appears to be aimed at labeling land used for private purposes as strategic nationalized land and strengthening the state’s ability to collect real estate taxes. However, the broadcaster failed to explain in detail how this restructuring would occur.

By enacting the Commodities Consumption Level Law, North Korean authorities can control the basis at which goods are injected into each production sector. This appears to be in preparation for taking cost-reduction measures for enterprises related to production in each region. The broadcaster explained that there were legal demands for the enactment and enforcement of regulations on the level of consumption.

The General Equipment Import Law newly regulates import plans, contracts, and the use of goods by factories, schools, hospitals, ships and broadcasters in an effort to control quality. In each sector, the measure prevents double-investment and controls consumption competition.

As these economic control measures are focused on factories and other bases of production along with importers, it appears that, in conjunction with the recent currency reform, North Korean authorities are attempting to control production quality on all levels. For example, as the North is suffering ongoing supply difficulties due to a lack of materials, the law on consumption levels is an attempt to restrict goods by forcefully managing demand. The law on imports appears to be in an effort to regulate general-use goods in light of the increased reliance on foreign equipment.

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Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance Between the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Peking Review, Vol. 4, No. 28, p.5.
Transcribed/HTML: Max, B. and Mike B.
(h/t Northeast Asia Matters)

July 11, 1967

The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China and the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, determined, in accordance with Marxism-Leninism and the principle of proletarian internationalism and on the basis of mutual respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and mutual assistance and support, to make every effort to further strengthen and develop the fraternal relations of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance between the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to jointly guard the security of the two peoples, and to safeguard and consolidate the peace of Asia and the world, and deeply convinced that the development and strengthening of the relations of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance between the two countries accord not only with the fundamental interests of the two peoples but also with the interests of the peoples all over the world, have decided for this purpose to conclude the present Treaty and appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries:

   The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China: Chou En-lai, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.

   The Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Kim Il Sung, Premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

Who, having examined each other’s full powers and found them in good and due form, have agreed upon the the following:

Article I

The Contracting Parties will continue to make every effort to safeguard the peace of Asia and the world and the security of all peoples.

Article II

The Contracting Parties undertake jointly to adopt all measures to prevent aggression against either of the Contracting Parties by any state. In the event of one of the Contracting Parties being subjected to the armed attack by any state or several states jointly and thus being involved in a state of war, the other Contracting Party shall immediately render military and other assistance by all means at its disposal.

Article III

Neither Contracting Party shall conclude any alliance directed against the other Contracting Party or take part in any bloc or in any action or measure directed against the other Contracting Party .

Article IV

The Contracting Parties will continue to consult with each other on all important international questions of common interest to the two countries.

Article V

The Contracting Parties, on the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and in the spirit of friendly co-operation, will continue to render each other every possible economic and technical aid in the cause of socialist construction of the two countries and will continue to consolidate and develop economic, cultural, and scientific and technical co-operation between the two countries.

Article VI

The Contracting Parties hold that the unification of Korea must be realized along peaceful and democratic lines and that such a solution accords exactly with the national interests of the Korean people and the aim of preserving peace in the Far East.

Article VII

The present Treaty is subject to ratification and shall come into force on the day of exchange of instruments of ratification, which will take place in Pyongyang. The present Treaty will remain in force until the Contracting Parties agree on its amendment or termination. Done in duplicate in Peking on the eleventh day of July, nineteen sixty-one, in the Chinese and Korean languages, both texts being equally authentic.
(Signed)
CHOU EN-LAI
Plenipotentiary of the
People’s Republic of China

(Signed)
KIM IL SUNG
Plenipotentiary of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

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