North Korea to convene rare Parliament meeting amid economic crisis

SEOUL - North Korea will convene its Parliament on Feb 6 to discuss government budgets and other issues, state media said on Wednesday (Dec 15) as the country faces mounting economic woes.

The North's Parliament rarely meets and usually serves to approve decisions on issues such as governing structures and budgets that have been created by the state's powerful Workers' Party, members of which form the vast majority of the isolated state's Supreme People's Assembly.

The agenda for February's meeting will include the work of the Cabinet, government budgets, childcare legislation and "the law on the protection of the rights and interests of overseas compatriots", KCNA news agency reported.

The decision to convene Parliament came at a plenary meeting of the assembly's standing committee on Tuesday, KCNA said.

The standing committee was overseen by its chairman, Mr Choe Ryong Hae, one of the most powerful officials under country leader Kim Jong-un.

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The committee also discussed laws on construction design, property and river and ship transport, KCNA reported.

North Korea's economy suffered its biggest contraction in 23 years in 2020 as it was battered by continued United Nations sanctions, Covid-19 lockdown measures and bad weather, South Korea's central bank has estimated.

North Korea has not confirmed any Covid-19 cases, but it has closed borders and imposed strict prevention measures, seeing tackling the pandemic as a matter of national survival.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea has said that the country's most vulnerable people risk starvation after the country slipped deeper into isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.