[Yonhap Photo]
North Korea convened a key parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, South Korean officials said, amid heightened tensions over its possible nuclear and missile provocations.
The 13th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) held its one-day plenary session for the first time since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was elected head of a new state body last year.
The legislative body is constitutionally the highest organ of state power but actually rubber-stamps decisions made by more powerful organizations, such as the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Every April, the SPA holds a plenary session, attended by hundreds of deputies, to approve the budget and reshuffle Cabinet organs.
At the last meeting in June 2016, Kim was elected as chairman of the newly created State Affairs Commission (SAC), which replaced the National Defense Commission. The session followed a WPK congress in May.
As this year's meeting came amid growing security tensions on the peninsula, attention is drawn to whether Kim will deliver a message targeting the United States or South Korea.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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