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N Korea delays opening parliament

North Korea yesterday made the unprecedented move of postponing its annual session of parliament, due to start next week, amid rising tensions over its nuclear-weapons program.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Seoul, gave no reason for the abrupt postponement of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) session, and the announcement left officials here reaching for an explanation.

The assembly's presidium has decided to postpone the session "at the requests made by deputies to the SPA in all domains of the socialist construction," KCNA said.

"The [new] date of the session will be set and announced publicly," it added.

The session was due to have opened on Wednesday.

Officially, the SPA is the highest organ of state power. In practice it serves only to ratify decisions made by the ruling Korean Workers' Party headed by Kim Jong-Il.

The enigmatic and isolated Stalinist state said last month that the third session of the 11th SPA would convene next Wednesday.

Some officials and analysts have said the postponement might be linked to mounting tension over North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. Others have said it might have been caused by delays to drawing up a new budget.

"It's anybody's guess what caused the postponement. But Pyongyang might be seeking to alert people to the rising tensions and step up solidarity in the nuclear stand-off," an official of the Unification Ministry said.

But he ruled out the possibility that there might be changes to the power structure in the North, noting that Kim Jong-Il has been carrying out his official duties as normal.

Koh Yu-hwan of Dongguk University said the North's decision might be aimed at strengthening unity around Kim Jong-Il in the midst of the nuclear tension by creating a sense of crisis internally.

"There is also possibility that North Korea might need more time to study changes to laws concerning economic reform," he said.

On Thursday North Korea ended a self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles and said a "hostile" US policy was forcing it to develop its nuclear arsenal.

A day earlier it had demanded a US apology before returning to six-party talks which aim to curb its nuclear-weapons program in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits.

The 11th SPA opened its first session in September 2003 following the "election" of 687 members the previous month.

During the second session held in March last year, it discussed the previous year's budget, approved last year's budget and rubber-stamped major projects planned for that year.
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