North Korea will convene a rare second parliamentary session this year, media reports said yesterday, amid mounting speculation the regime may have torpedoed a South Korean warship in March.
No reason for the second session was given, though South Korean media speculated it might be related to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s recent trip to China or his moves to groom his son as eventual successor.
The North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly usually meets one day each year to approve bills vetted by the ruling Workers’ Party. This year, the rubber-stamp parliament met last month April and discussed plans for economic development, the state budget and constitutional revisions.
Yesterday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch that parliament would meet again in Pyongyang on June 7. The dispatch gave no further details.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was rare for the North to convene a parliamentary session twice a year. Spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said the second session is being convened following Kim’s trip to Beijing earlier this month and amid tension over the ship sinking, but didn’t further speculate on possible purposes for the session.
Yonhap news agency said the session may be related to Kim’s moves to give a son a high-level post as part of efforts to anoint him as his successor or to approve economic agreements he is believed to have signed with Chinese leaders during his trip to Beijing. Yonhap didn’t cite any source.
It was not clear if Kim would attend the parliamentary session.
The 68-year-old leader is believed to have skipped last month’s session, though he made a triumphant return to the public eye at a session last year after months out of sight amid rumors about his failing health.
The North’s dispatch came as South Korea is set to announce this week the results of an investigation into a mysterious blast that tore apart and sank the South Korean navy ship near the tense border with North Korea on March 26. Forty-six sailors were killed.
Seoul has not directly blamed North Korea for the sinking and Pyongyang has denied involvement, but suspicion has focused on the North given its history of attacks.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak spoke with US President Barack Obama on the phone yesterday and discussed the ship sinking, their offices said.
Lee told Obama about the ongoing investigation and the US president said he fully trusts and supports South Korea’s probe being conducted with US and other foreign investigators, according to Lee’s presidential Blue House.
White House said Obama reaffirmed that the US was strongly committed to the defense of South Korea.
The two leaders also agreed that North Korea must abide by a pledge to disarm its nuclear weapons program and stop engaging in provocation, the Blue House said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to visit South Korea next week.
Yonhap news agency reported yesterday that investigators have obtained traces of explosives found from the warship’s wreckage that are identical to gunpowder ingredients of a North Korean torpedo.
Yonhap cited an unidentified military official.
The defense ministry said it couldn’t confirm the report but it said it had collected a stray North Korean torpedo that came ashore off the west coast seven years ago.
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