Seoul, Sep 16 (IANS) North Korea will hold a crucial parliamentary meeting next month to focus on amending the country’s constitution, state media reported on Monday, days after North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un called for constitutional amendments to declare South Korea as its main enemy.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the 11th session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) will be held in Pyongyang on October 7. According to a report by Yonhap news agency, at the SPA meeting in January, the North Korean leader amended the constitution to declare South Korea as his main enemy. At the same time, he also reiterated his commitment to fully occupy South Korean territory in the event of war.
Kim ordered a review of the constitutional amendment that removed unification clauses and redrew the country’s territorial boundaries, including maritime boundaries.
At a year-end party meeting in December, he defined inter-Korean relations as ties between “two states hostile to each other.” He vowed not to treat the South as a counterpart to reconciliation and unification. South Korea’s Unification Ministry previously said North Korea could abrogate the inter-Korean Basic Agreement signed in 1991 at its next SPA meeting.
Let us tell you that under the 1991 agreement, inter-Korean relations were defined as a special relationship. KCNA said that along with amending and supplementing the country’s socialist constitution, North Korea will also discuss the issue of discussing and adopting laws on light industry and external economic affairs and monitoring the enforcement of the quality control law.
It is noteworthy that the SPA is the highest organ of state power under North Korea’s constitution, but in reality it only ratifies the decisions of the ruling Workers’ Party. Meanwhile, North Korea is likely to hold elections soon to choose new SPA representatives, as it has announced to convene a parliamentary meeting next month.
North Korea elected representatives to the 14th SPA for a five-year term in March 2019. Therefore, it was supposed to elect new representatives in March. However, the regime has not even publicly announced the schedule for the election of new SPA representatives.
Experts say North Korea has postponed the elections as it was working on reviewing constitutional amendments as ordered by its leader Kim.
-IANS
RK/KR
